Writer's Game: Battle of Brothers - Kim Hellfire
by EnchantedNuns
Summary: Kim is a demigod at Camp Jupiter. Her mother is Hekate, goddess of magic, the moon and birth. As her daughter, Kim can use her personal power to stop time and she's able to cast spells and brew potions. One day, she and her fellow campers set off to Camp Half-Blood, home of their sworn enemies. There, Kim is picked for a quest that will once and for all decide which camp is better.
1. Kim Hellfire

**A.N.: On Wattpad com, I'm in JustALittleInfinity's Writers Games: μάχη των αδελφών (Battle of the Brothers). My entries are posted in her contest book, but I'll post them in this as well. However, I will NOT post my entries before she has. I will also always link her chapter containing my entry in this story. Thanks to BrooklynBby_ (Wattpad) for designing my cover!**

**JustALittleInfinity's chapter on Wattpad: 55856988-writers-games-%CE%BC%CE%AC%CF%87%CE%B7-%CF%84%CF%89%CE%BD-%CE%B1%CE%B4%CE%B5%CE%BB%CF%86%CF%8E%CE%BD-battle-of-the**

Contestant form

Name: Kim Hellfire

Age: 17

Gender: Female

Camp: Camp Jupiter

God/goddess parent: Hekate, goddess of magic, birth and the moon

Family: Her father Kirk Hellfire. He was a chef at a restaurant, where Kim would mostly spend her Saturday afternoons. She learnt to cook from him and whenever she's standing over a stove, she feels connected to him. He was killed by her monstrous ex-boyfriend, which is how she found out she was a demigod.

Appearance: Kim is the kind of girl that gives boys a wet dream. She's gorgeous, has long, waving brown hair that reaches hallway down her back and she has stunning greyish green eyes. She has a lightly tanned skin, an average build and is 5ft. 7in. tall. As a daughter of Hekate, a moon goddess, her magical powers aren't only heightened when the moon rises, but her skin starts to glimmer in the moonlight.

Personality: Not only does Kim have the looks of a supermodel, but she also has a heart of gold. She's sweet, kind-hearted, a bit naïve, sarcastic and a little boy crazy. Well, maybe more than just a little. Okay, a lot! Although she's obsessed with boys, she's incredibly shy to talk to them. If an attractive boy only looks at her, she starts giggling uncontrollably and playing with her hair. Also, since she's kind-hearted, she doesn't like fighting and would rather engage in peaceful negotiations than pummel someone's face like some other demigods do (not to mention any names).

How long have you been at Camp Jupiter: One year

Skills: As briefly mentioned before, Kim has magical powers that she inherited from her mother Hekate. If she stretches her hands out, she can stop time or let moving objects/people hang motionlessly in the air. This only lasts for a minute or so, after which everything starts to move again. She's able to say spells, but they have to rhyme and since she isn't quick with words, she mostly gets her ass kicked. Also, if she sings a rhyming song, things tend to blow up around her. Lastly, she's able to brew magic potions. Technically, all these abilities make her a witch and people usually call her that, but you should never EVER call her a witch to her face or she will turn you into a toad, or kick you in the nuts if you're a boy. Unless you're a handsome boy, because then she'll giggle uncontrollably…

Fatal flaw: she's easily frightened and will be the first to panic in a dangerous situation

Weapon of choice: "Weapons? Can't we all just be friends? No? Fine, spells and potions it is."

Backstory: Up until the age of 16, Kim had an on-and-off-again relationship with her now ex-boyfriend, but he turned out to be an evil monster. Luckily, her dad saved her from him before he could hurt her. This is when he revealed her true lineage and took her to Camp Jupiter. Unfortunately, her evil boyfriend caught up with them and killed her dad, but Kim still made it to camp, where older daughters of Hekate taught her the ropes. In the end, Kim faced her murderous boyfriend and took away his powers with a spell. Even though he had killed her dad, she loved him and couldn't bring herself to magically end her ex-boyfriend's life.

Token: a little black spell book in which she writes down all her spells and potion recipes and describes the mythical/divine/magical beings she has encountered

Other: when Kim isn't brewing potions, she's constantly cooking food for her fellow campers. Ambrosia


	2. Say What? !

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I lie in bed listening to my iPod. My long, brown hair is undone and its waving locks lie spread out like the majestic tail of a peacock. My eyes are closed and my iPod's volume is turned up way high, so I can't hear my oldest sister.

"Kim!" she shouts, but it sounds more like a whisper to me. Kelly is not really my oldest sister. Well, she is, at least here at Camp Jupiter. Of the four daughters of Hekate at camp, she's the oldest; she's 20 years old. I'm the youngest with my mere 17 years of age. Then there are Natalie and Astrid, 18 and 19 years old respectively.

Suddenly, my music stops. For some reason, my earplugs have been yanked out.

"Kim Louise Hellfire!" Kelly shouts angrily. _Oh no, she's calling me by my full name._ Her sudden voice makes me snap up instantly. My eyes flash open and there I see Kelly standing, her finger still pointed at my ears. She must have used her telekinesis to yank my plugs out.

As daughters of Hekate, the Roman goddess of the moon, birth and magic, we each have a unique magic power. Kelly's is telekinesis and mine is stopping time. Well, stopping moving objects really. If you threw a ball at me and I stretched my hands out, it would hang motionlessly in the air as if suspended on a wire.

Aside from our personal powers, we're all able to cast rhyming spells and brew potions. That technically makes us witches, but don't you EVER call us that or we'll turn you into a toad. Also, when the moon is out, our magic powers are nearly tripled and our skin starts to glimmer in the moonlight, one of the many useful abilities we've inherited. _Cough, cough._

"Why haven't you packed yet?" Kelly asks me, eyeing my still empty pink suitcase. Since she's the oldest, she always feels responsible for us and protects us in whatever way she can.

She's a little bit shorter than my 5 ft. 7 in., and has pale skin and half-long ginger hair. Physically we're so different from each other that you would never guess we're sisters, unless you saw how we act together. I have brown hair that reaches halfway down my back, lightly tan skin and stunning greyish green eyes. I'm so gorgeous that Natalie calls me 'the kind of girl that gives boys a wet dream'.

"Hé, I was getting to that. Besides, Astrid hasn't packed either," I nod towards my second oldest sister, who's reading a history book on her bed. She has short, dark blond hair, a round freckled face and is just as tall as Kelly.

"Yes, but she can multiply herself," Kelly smirks and winks at Astrid. She looks up from her book and her eyes light up a bright gold. Next, five Astrid clones appear out of thin air and start gathering her/their belongings.

"Oh, that's not fair!" I groan. "Why do we even have to pack? Where are we going?"

"I don't know, honey, but unless you want Antonius on your ass, you better start packing," she takes a bunch of my clothes and dumps them in my suitcase. Antonius Katicus is the Director of Camp Jupiter and as a son of Mars, he has an infamous temper. I get up at once and start gathering my stuff.

"I still want to know where we're going. Are we going to meet new people there?" I ask hopefully.

"I believe our baby sister is asking about boys," Natalie giggles as she walks into our cabin. My final sister is 4 inches taller than me, has blond bangs, pinkish skin and a sturdy build.

"Boys?" I turn to her attentively. _Ah, my one weakness!_ I'm totally boy crazy, but strangely enough really shy too. So, I would love to talk to cute boys, but whenever one just looks at me, I start giggling uncontrollably and playing with my hair like a silly schoolgirl.

"Oooh, maybe there _will_ be boys where we're going," Kelly grins mischievously.

"Maybe some of them will be handsome," Natalie raises her eyebrows conspiratorially.

"And tall," one of Astrid's clones chimes in.

"And tan," Kelly continues.

"With wild, dark hair," Natalie stands next to Kelly.

"And a strong jawline."

"And a big…" Natalie holds both her hands over her crotch in a cylindrical-fashion, but Kelly covers her mouth before she can finish. Did I mention Natalie has the dirtiest mind of us all?

"Sixpack!" Kelly intervenes, glaring at her. She releases her hand and packs my small black spell book.

"That's not what I was going to say," Natalie exclaims in a fake appalled tone.

"I know, but the poor girl's too young to hear such things," she motions to me.

"I may be 17, but I'm not stupid, nor a virgin," I say dryly. With impeccable comical timing, Astrid's clones respond in unison:

"Boo, you whore!"

This _Mean Girls_ quote makes us all laugh. Astrid quotes _Mean Girls_ at least once or twice a day and operates by the motto '_Mean Girls_ is love, _Mean Girls_ is life'. It drives Kelly crazy, though.

We've finally packed our suitcases and, after Astrid made her clones disappear, we hold hands so Natalie can take us to the boat. She can teleport anything anywhere in a flash of blue light. She closes her eyes and then all of a sudden, we're standing on the boat.

Soon after, the ship sails off and we head out to open sea. The further we get, the heavier the wind blows and the wilder my hair whips in the draft. I tie it up in a long tail to keep it from slapping someone in the face. Our thin purple T-shirts with SPQR on don't help against the cold winds either.

"Ugh, why are we wearing these purple Ts again?" I ask no one in particular.

"Yeah, on Wednesdays we wear pink," Astrid quotes _Mean Girls_ yet again.

"Will you cut that out," Kelly sneers at her. "Kim, Antonius wanted us to. I tried asking him why, but he just blew me off. You're welcome to try yourself."

I peer at Antonius, who's staring out into the sea. His short, dark brown hair is all tousled from the wind, but he doesn't seem to notice. I can see his muscles tense up beneath his shirt. Something is up with him…but I'd rather not disturb him when he's like this.

Hours upon hours later, our ship runs aground on an unknown shore. At once, everyone is on edge. I scope the beach and in the distance I see tents, wooden buildings and training structures similar to those we have back at camp. _What is this place?_

A handful of kids appears out of the shrubs at the edge of the beach. Some of them are wearing battle armor. _Greek_ battle armor. Of all the places we could have gone, we sailed to Camp Half-Blood, home to the demigod children of the Greek gods – our counterparts, our sworn enemies.

Not long after our arrival, a red-haired centaur and a rather short woman with blond curls come to greet us. Antonius gets off the ship and motions us to follow. We follow his example with extreme caution as more Camp Half-Blood demigods check us out.

The centaur introduces himself as Atticus Rafel with a dashing smile; he's the Master of Ceremonies at Camp Half-Blood. The woman is Charissa DeLatón, Director of the camp. That's all the information we're given before we're lead to a large dining pavilion, where we're forced to sit with the Half-Blood campers. My sisters and I stay close together. When a young boy tries to sit next to us, Astrid multiplies herself and she and her clones yell:

"You can't sit with us!"

Terrified, the boy runs off and we all giggle over his discomfort. Then I spot _him_. On a picnic table close to us sits a tall, very tan boy with piercing black eyes and dark hair. Dark tattoos run across his muscular body. He's superhot, but his face is scarred up really badly. I wonder what happened to him.

I look straight at him and smile in the friendliest way possible. He catches my smile and scowls. I blush and lower my eyes at once. _Flirting with a boy from Camp Half-Blood, what was I thinking?_

Antonius, the centaur Atticus Rafel and camp Director Charissa DeLatón stand at the hearth of the pavilion. Charissa is the first to address us:

"Many of you know this battle has been going on for a while now. It must come to an end."

"She's right," Antonius agrees with her. The entire pavilion gasps. Unconsciously, I peer at the hot yet scarred boy. He keeps his eyes focused on the three in front.

"The oracle has given a prophecy," Charissa says and she reads it to us.

"We asked the gods for guidance, and it has come to this," Antonius explains. "Twenty-eight of you, fourteen from Camp Half-Blood, and fourteen from Camp Jupiter, must battle on a race to Olympus. All but one will perish. We have picked out the strongest competitors to represent our camps. Good luck!"

He starts to read off the names of Camp Jupiter kids. The first seven names are boys, most of which are around 5 ft. 10 in. tall. The Camp Half-Blood kids will have some real trouble going up against these guys. After the boys' names, Antonius switches to girls:

"Amelia Lock, Kim Hellfire, …"

I freeze up. My sisters shoot horrified glances at me.

"You've got to be kidding me!" I holler. I'm a pacifist! I am the worst possible choice for this kind of thing. How am I going to fight, if not kill, one of these people?

Reluctantly, I get up and work my way to the front and stand next to Amelia. The names continue on and on and eventually, Antonius reaches Camp Half-Blood names, boys first again:

"Dylan Feldspur, Adonis Cole, …"

At this, I see the tattooed and scarred hot guy get up. _Adonis Cole, so that's his name. _Unconsciously, I start blushing again. His name does match his appearance. Maybe he's a son of Aphrodite?

For the rest of the ceremony, I stare at my feet too afraid to peer either at my sisters, who must be devastated, or at Adonis, who must have already wiped me from his memory. _Well, I'm dead._


	3. The Interview

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The full moon shines bright when I stroll back to the dining pavilion at Camp Half-Blood. My skin glimmers in the moonlight, a dimmed blue hue radiating from my body. The Greek demigods stare after me, not accustomed to a daughter of Hekate. _Thanks mom._

When I glimpse back over my shoulder, I see three similarly blue lights moving away from me. My sisters and I have to spend the night in the Hades Cabin because Camp Half-Blood doesn't have one for Hekate.

I see the hearth of the dining pavilion glowing from a distance. Earlier, we were told to come back to it to chat with Atticus the centaur. Once at the circle around the hearth, I sit down next to Kyle, a boy from my own camp. At least my skin has stopped glimmering now that I'm out of the moonlight.

When I sit down, I feel Kyle adjust his posture next to me. He's two years younger than me, 5 ft. 11 in. tall and a son of Jupiter. He has dark brown hair, a hooked nose and a light skin, although he has this surfer boy vibe around him. He's loud and sarcastic, which I appreciate, but I don't know him that well.

The other chosen ones file in taking the remaining spots around the burning hearth, which glows orange and purple. I notice how Adonis, the handsome, scarred guy from Camp Half-Blood, sits next to a copper-skinned, black-haired girl who's a bit shorter than me. Adonis' muscles are bulging underneath his orange T-shirt.

Atticus stands near the hearth in the middle of the circle. His red hair is in a ponytail, which I find more than ironic, and he has a bow and quiver on his back. I'm still unsure what to think of him. The only centaur I ever came in contact with wanted to kidnap daughters of Venus from our camp and my sisters and I had to vanquish him with a spell. We didn't really chat with him before we blew him to pieces.

"Thank you all for being here," Atticus starts, "I'm glad you all showed up." _It's not like we __had a__ choice._

"Well then. You all are here to get to know each other," he claps his hands, "Isn't that great? Now we will go around in a circle starting with you," he points to some boy I've never seen before, "You can start."

Stammering a bit, the kid starts to introduce himself. He isn't much of a shocker, just the typical Greek that can't wait to show us Romans who rules. If I weren't a pacifist, I would have thrown a shoe at him to shut his smug little ass up.

Next up is Kalila. She's drop-dead gorgeous, but what would you expect from a daughter of Venus. From the few times I've run into her, she seemed devious, using her charmspeak and looks as effectively as her preferred bow and arrow. She's determined to win this quest and to prove that she isn't a typical child of Venus. I don't think she'll have much trouble doing so.

After her, I'm delighted that Atticus, who by now has urged us all to call him Ati, points out Adonis to share his story. I'm immediately on the edge of my seat. Adonis glares at Ati and grumbles before he starts.

I expected him to say he's a son of Aphrodite, but he completely blows me away when he says he's a son of Hephaestus. Okay, he's Aphrodite's husband, so close enough, but that still surprises me. Adonis is 17 years old, like me, which only makes me like him more, and he's a real handyman. Like his Camp Half-Blood peer, he's excited for the quest. Unfortunately, he's not a big talker, so that'll all he's willing to share.

Suddenly eager to be in the spotlight, I raise my hand in the air before Ati has the chance to point at anyone, a move I regret instantly. Adonis and his good looks made me forget my shyness, but it resurfaces as the eyes of the other demigods turn to me. Ati is actually happy to finally see some spontaneity.

"Great! What's your name, sweetheart?" he smiles.

"I'm Kim Hellfire," I answer hesitantly. "I'm 17 years old and I'm a daughter of Hekate."

Now everyone is interested. Daughters of Hekate aren't only rare, they're also infamous.

"That sounds mighty intriguing. Do you have any special abilities?" Ati asks.

"Well, like my sisters, I'm able to cast spells and brew potions…"

"What do those do?" a curious girl asks. This is the first time one of the other campers has asked anything to anyone. _I must really be fascinating._

"Oh, we usually use spells to vanquish…destroy…evil monsters and the potions' effects really depend on the type."

Some kids around the circle are leaning forward like I did with Adonis and nodding their heads in appreciation. Ati poses the next question.

"If I'm not mistaken, daughters of Hekate each have a personal power?"

"Yes," I beam. "I can stop objects or people from moving entirely. If you throw something at me, I can make it hang motionlessly in the air like a balloon."

"Really?" the copper-skinned girl next to Adonis smirks.

"Yes, it's really…", right then she sends a knife flying my way and I stretch my hands out to stop it, "Aaah!"

As soon as I stretch my hands, the knife stops and hangs motionlessly in the air just a few inches away from my nose. The sudden attack caused the other Camp Jupiter kids to reach for their weapons. I'm the first to act though.

"What is your problem?" I yell at the girl next to Adonis who's now disappointed her knife didn't follow through. I take the motionless blade out of the air, get up from my seat and stampede over to her.

"Why did you even bother? I mean, you threw a knife at the only person against whom this attack is pointless. That's not very smart. Then again, you are from Camp Half-Blood," I sneer.

Furiously, she jumps up. "I just wanted to test you. It wouldn't be the first time a demigod from Camp Jupiter was lying through her teeth."

"Seriously? Why would I lie about that?"

"I just thought you wanted to scare us, so we would stay away from you. Not that it helped; I would've taken you out first anyway," she smirks. I notice from the corner of my eye that everyone, except for Ati, finds our cat fight quite entertaining. Some boys look practically ready to throw buckets of jello at us.

"I'd like to see you try," I laugh.

"Oh yeah? Bring it on, witch!"

The Camp Jupiter kids gasp. They know me well enough to never EVER call me like that, but if you've never encountered a daughter of Hekate before, such a mistake is easily made. Nonetheless, I shall have no mercy on this brat any longer.

"Barbarian on my path, prepare to feel my wrath. Barbarian along my road, enjoy your life as a…" before I can finish my spell, a boy has put his hand over my mouth and pulled me back. To my surprise, it's Kyle. Now that he has subdued me, the girl wants to punch me, but Adonis gets up from behind her and pulls her back too.

"Stop it, Aglaeca!" he orders her. Ati finally steps in and separates us entirely by placing himself between us.

"You two have bickered long enough. Sit down and calm yourselves," he looks around the circle, "I suggest you all calm down. There will be no fighting tonight. You'll have plenty of time for that when the quest starts."

Kyle redirects me to my seat and doesn't let his hand off my mouth until I've stopped fuming. Aglaeca composes herself quicker than me, but continues to glare at me. When I'm finally calm and Kyle has released me, Ati questions me further.

"Okay Kim, since we already spent a fair amount of time on you, I want you to answer these questions as concise as you can. What do you think about the quest?"

"I hate it. I want to go home with my sisters," I grumble.

"I can understand that. Why do you think Antonius chose you?"

"I honestly don't know. I'm a pacifist, although you may find that hard to believe after tonight," I smile sheepishly.

He chuckles. "Just a little, yes. What will be the biggest challenge for you in the quest?"

"To survive."

"Do you think you will make it to Olympus?"

"I doubt it," I whisper. I know better than anyone that the Underworld would have to freeze over before I could win a fight. Ati graciously lets me off the hook and interviews someone else while I have a miniature mental breakdown. I hope miracles happen, because that's what it will take for me to survive this.


	4. Endless Night

**A.N.: Sooo, this is actually a part of our first task that JustAlittleInfinity didn't post, but she did score us on it. Guess you're the lucky ones receiving a bonus feature.**

With my arms folded over my chest, I saunter to Cabin Thirteen, the Hades Cabin, where I'll spend the night with my sisters. I'm still upset by my disastrous interview with Ati. Not only did I make a new enemy, but I also embarrassed the other Camp Jupiter kids by showing so little self-control. I mean, Kyle had to subdue me for crying out loud!

Furthermore, the full moon illuminates the sky, which means I'm giving off more light than a bug lamp, causing Greek demigods to stare after me, yet again. To add to that, I have my own little posse following me. Ezra and Pomegranate decided to tag along with me after the interview.

The two of them are from Camp Jupiter too and they were also chosen for the quest. Since they're children of Pluto, they're sleeping in the Hades Cabin as well. This is why they're following me like a pair of Labradors. _As if this evening couldn't get any better._

We finally get to our cabin and I nearly kick the door open out of frustration. That's when I see my three sisters holding a giant sign that reads "We will miss you! Come back soon!" in large, bold letters in all the colors of the rainbow.

"She's back!" Natalie shouts excitedly. Then she, Kelly and Astrid chant together:

"Kim, we'll miss you! Come back soon! We love you, baby sis'!"

They run to me and swarm me with their hugs and 'we love you's. I'm completely overwhelmed and utterly speechless. Ezra and Pomegranate sneak past us to join their Pluto siblings, who are less touchy feely than mine.

"What is this?" I finally manage to ask.

"Instead of crying our eyes out, we decided to throw you a goodbye party. We don't want you to feel absolutely guttered when you go on this quest," Kelly explains.

"Exactly, we want you to know that we believe in you and count on you to come back," Natalie smiles, "Unfortunately, our goodbye party is going to be really plain because it's not like we could get you a cake or something."

"Yes, I wish I could bake a cake made out of rainbows and smiles, and we'd all eat it and be happy," Astrid says with a fragile little voice.

"I'm really going to miss your _Mean Girls_ quotes when I'm gone," I smile, tears forming in my eyes.

"You go, Glen Coco!" she hugs me tight and starts sobbing.

"Aaw, is that all you can say?" I sniff chuckling.

"I just have a lot of feelings."

We both start weeping and Kelly and Natalie join in on our hug. It isn't long before they start bawling too.

"If I ever get my hands on Antonius, I'm going to fling him into a pit of lava," Kelly cries.

"Not unless I teleport him to the moon where he can just suffocate and die," Natalie whimpers.

"He's a life ruiner. He ruins people's lives," Astrid blubbers.

"Oh, you guys, stop it. He picked who he thought were the strongest campers. I should see it as a compliment," I try to reason with them.

"Lousy compliment," Natalie snivels, "Couldn't he just tell you that you're pretty?"

Inadvertently, my supposedly cheerful goodbye party turns into us crying our eyes out, which causes more than a few weird looks from the Hades and Pluto kids. I guess they're not as close with their siblings as we are. _Their loss!_ I wouldn't have my harebrained sisters any other way.

The only thing that could make this better is if my dad had been here. Unfortunately, he died before I reached Camp Jupiter a year ago. Well died, he was murdered. Murdered by my own ex-boyfriend, who turned out to be a monster. My dad and I had had such a strong connection. Nothing on heaven or earth could replace this wonderful man who was taken away from me far too soon. Not even my love for my sisters, although it is a close second.

Eventually, we're all cried out and we decide to call it a night. After a last round of hugs and 'I love you's, my sisters finally go to sleep. I go to bed wearing only my SPQR shirt and my pink panties. Yet I can't seem to fall asleep. I lie awake in my bed worrying about tomorrow and the quest.

In the middle of the night, our cabin door opens and a tall obscured figure sneaks in. It's Antonius. He tiptoes over to my bed, careful as to not wake the others. He softly shakes my shoulder to wake me up, but I still haven't fallen asleep yet.

"Hey Toni. What brings you here?" I whisper. Antonius and I get along really well. We're actually close friends, so I'm allowed to call him Toni.

"Hi Kim. We need to talk," he sits down at the end of my bed. I pull my covers off, revealing my smooth, tan legs, and scoot over to him. That's when he notices my bare legs and panties.

"Nice!" he nods approvingly before wincing in embarrassment of what he just said. His tone had resembled a horny frat boy rather than a respected leader.

"Could you please cover your legs?" he tries to compose himself, but fails to remove his aroused gaze from my legs.

"Is something wrong with them?" I ask, still a bit naïve as to why he's so distraught.

"No!" he quickly reassures me. "They're fine. Great even!", his gaze creeps up my legs again, "More than great."

He winces at his own horniness again, looks straight ahead of himself and says with a tone and expression as hard as concrete:

"Legionnaire Hellfire, your legs are distracting your superior officer. Cover them at once." _Now I get it!_

"Oh!" I get his issue with me, but that doesn't mean I won't let him squirm for another few seconds. I put my right leg up in the air and dangle it in front of his tormented face.

"So this is distracting you? Is it causing problems with your 'superior officer'?" I smirk.

"Yes, now will you please stop torturing me and cover your legs?"

I chuckle and slide my body back under the covers up until my waist. "I didn't know I had this effect on you, Toni."

"As Praetor I can still appreciate a beautiful woman when I see one, even if she's messing with my 'superior officer'," he grins.

"Shouldn't that 'even' be 'especially'?" I tease.

"Quit playing me, Kim. Who knows what I might do to you in your bed?" he teases back.

"Hmm, I don't think Hekate would go lightly over statutory rape."

"A lot worse things happened in Ancient Rome," he sighs, "It certainly didn't stop Mars."

A wave of pity flows over me. I take his face in my hands and look him right in his piercing green eyes:

"Hé, you didn't inherit your father's bad side. You're not like him. You're a wonderful and supportive leader that deserves all of our respect."

A spark of happiness twinkles in his eyes and he straightens up proudly. He's still looking at me when he muses:

"If only you were older, so I could take you away from all this and carry you over the threshold of our New Rome house."

"Yeah right," I laugh. "Sorry Toni, I don't hear any wedding bells. You're still much older than me and I see you as nothing more than my Praetor and my friend."

I feel bad for friendzoning him, but I need him to think straight. His puppy love will get me nowhere.

"What did you want to talk to me about?" I steer him back to his original purpose.

"Yes, right. Ati told me about your fight with a Camp Half-Blood camper," his expression and voice hold all the disapproval of a Praetor disappointed in his beloved subordinate. His condemning green eyes make me cringe more than anything.

"I'm sorry, Toni, but she provoked me. She called me a witch!"

His hard expression softens into an understanding smile. "I know all about it. I told Ati that you and your sisters have zero tolerance for that word. You can imagine how confused he was."

"Well, at least I didn't turn that girl into a toad," I smile sheepishly.

"Barely," he scoffs. "The first thing you're going to do tomorrow is apologize to Aglaeca. She may be a Greek, but we've momentarily buried the hatchet, remember?"

"Sure, I'll do that. Right before she digs up the hatchet again and chops it into my back," I mutter. "Toni, why did you pick me?"

His gaze hardens again. I'm actually curious what his reasons were. Up until a few moments ago, he seemed willing to marry me, yet he was the very person that sentenced me to this all-or-nothing quest.

"Of the entire legion, you are by far the strongest. Your magic will prove to be your most powerful weapon."

"If I had the guts to use it to harm someone other than an evil creature. Toni, you know me almost as well as my sisters. How could you possibly pick little, ole, pacifistic me?"

"Because I believe in you. You've only been at camp for a year, but you're already as powerful as your sisters, if not stronger. According to Kelly, your spells are far more effective than your sisters' and you're a natural at brewing potions."

"Yeah, because my dad was a chef and I cooked with him every Saturday."

"Exactly, you have a gift for mixing ingredients and creating new flavors. Use that talent to brew potions that will blow your competition away."

"Literally," I laugh.

"See, that's the spirit! Have faith in yourself, Kim, because your sisters and I certainly do. I want you to survive this, so we can talk about that New Rome house again," he winks.

"Not going to happen, Toni," I whisper in his ear before I lie down in my bed. He gets up and walks to Ezra's bed a few bunks down the line. He gives him and Pomegranate a pep talk just like me, although he never mentions marriage to them, and then finally leaves in the dark shades of the night.

Before I fall asleep, I let my mind wander back to my talk with Toni, his lovesick musings especially. I permit myself to wonder what a life with him would be like. I imagine pulling him closer to me, embracing him, feeling his chest beneath my hands, kissing him lovingly.

I picture myself as Mrs. Antonius Katicus, wife of a respected Praetor of Camp Jupiter and daughter of Hekate, respected in my own right. I fantasize about him holding me in our marital bed, his large hands encompassing my curves, our bodies working together to form life or just for the fun of it. I imagine what our children might look like, legacies of Mars and Hekate, warriors and spellcasters.

But these thoughts vanish as a gruesome realization dawns on me. I will experience none of these things, not with Toni, not even with Adonis Cole, not with anyone, because this quest to Olympus will surely be the death of me.


	5. Race to Olympus

**JustALittleInfinity's chapter on Wattpad: 67582029-writers-games-%CE%BC%CE%AC%CF%87%CE%B7-%CF%84%CF%89%CE%BD-%CE%B1%CE%B4%CE%B5%CE%BB%CF%86%CF%8E%CE%BD-battle-of-the?utm_source=email-uploaded_story&amp;ref_id=13312859**

As the sun rises over Camp Half-Blood, both Greek and Roman demigods hike up Half-Blood Hill. Antonius, Charissa and Ati lead the way with the chosen ones for the quest behind them. I stick near the end of the group of 22 campers and my sisters stay close to me.

All of us chosen ones are wearing red T-shirts, jeans and brown hiking boots. I'm also wearing a black canvas backpack while the others have different accessories. We each received a gift from our godly parent too. Hekate gave me two small vials of Gorgon's blood; one of them heals, the other kills. Inside my backpack, there's also a multi tool, a quart-sized water bottle, a bagged rain coat and a plastic cup.

While climbing up Half-Blood Hill, I see Aglaeca, the girl I fought with yesterday, walking next to Adonis. Last night my Praetor Toni came into our cabin and he made me promise to apologize to Aglaeca, even though she's the one that threw a knife at my head. I sneak over to her and tap her shoulder. The look she gives me is venomous to say the least.

"Hello Aglaeca. I just wanted to apologize for last night…"

"Why?" she asks puzzled.

"Well, I may have overreacted during the interview when I tried to turn you into a toad…"

"I threw a knife at your head. You reacted like any normal person would. Did your Praetor put you up to this?" she raises an eyebrow.

"Maybe, but…"

"Sorry toots, I don't accept forced apologies," she speeds up and leaves me with Adonis, who gleefully eavesdropped on us. He smirks.

"Don't take it personally. She's difficult to get along with in general." _Don't do it, Kim. Try to act normal. Don't…_

I start giggling uncontrollably and winding a lock of my hair around my right index finger. Adonis raises an eyebrow in confusion and stares at me.

"Are you okay?" he asks.

"I'm fine," I giggle, "I just need a minute."

"Okaaay. I'm just going to catch up with Ace. Good luck in the quest!" he winks. My giggling slows down after he bolts off. I fall back again on the chosen ones with my sisters right behind me.

_Good going, Kim! You didn't just have a cat fight yesterday, but you also giggled like a fool in front of the hottie. What's next? Tripping over your own feet when they signal the start of the quest?_

On top of Half-Blood Hill, we come across an enormous pine tree which has celestial bronze glowing at its base. I instantly sense a change in the atmosphere around us. Kelly, my oldest sister, squeezes my shoulder and whispers into my ear:

"Do you feel that?"

"Yes, it's magic. A powerful kind too," I whisper over my shoulder. She nods, closes her eyes and touches her temples.

"You can just feel it buzzing in the air!"

We've stopped and Toni is standing in front of us, claiming everyone's attention. His stern look ceases each conversation. My heart sinks into my stomach.

"Selected, move forward," he barks. The 22 of us separate from the group and step closer to Toni, Charissa and Ati. I concentrate extra hard not to trip over my own feet.

"You all have to get from Camp Half-Blood to Olympus, the mortals know it as the Empire State Building in Manhattan," Toni explains. His piercing green eyes reveal no emotion.

"There are weapons out there," Charissa says, tearing up. "But you have to look closely. Demeter, Athena, Ares and many other gods have hidden weapons along the way, only the true heroes can find them."

Toni's hard gaze locks with mine. For a moment, his face contorts in sadness, but he quickly regains his seriousness. He and I are as close as a 17-year-old girl and her much older Praetor can get. Last night when he was in our cabin, he even mentioned marriage. _Toni, if you wanted more from me, you could have just asked me out, instead of condemning me to die._

"Selected, move to the shield," Charissa orders us. We step forward, our faces inches away from the magical protection shield over Camp Half-Blood. I feel its energy glimmering around me.

"On your mark," Toni signals.

"Get set," Charissa calls. My heart is racing with my competitors so close beside me.

A horn is blown and we sprint off, but I realize something. _Why am I running _with_ them? _I skid to a stop only a few feet away from the protection shield and stretch my hands out in front of me. My competitors now stand motionless in a running pose.

I chuckle. "Get wrecked, noobs!"

Then I run for my life and speed ahead of the stationary campers. From behind me, I hear Toni's laugh breeching through the silence as he figures out what happened. Next, my sisters start cheering me on. I glance over my shoulder and see 21 immobile demigods, Toni slapping his thigh laughing, my sisters excitedly jumping up and down and a herd of campers staring after me, jaws dropped.

Yet my shenanigan will run out in a minute, so I race down the hill and dash into the forest. Luckily, I always went to physical training, so I make good progress running through the forest. If only I had worn a sports bra though; my boobs are jiggling all over the place.

After running for half an hour, I lean against a black oak, panting with exhaustion. I slip to the ground, catch my breath and take a sip from my water bottle. Beneath the black oak I find a bunch of acorns.

Remembering a spell, I rummage my black canvas backpack for my little spell book, which was the token I took with me. In it, I wrote down all my spells and potions, and the magical beings I have encountered. I tug it out from the bottom of my backpack and search for the spell I need. Once found, I cradle the acorns in my hands and whisper the incantation into them.

Then I examine my surroundings. Seeing the various plants, berries and animals around me triggers alarm bells in my head. I should collect anything I recognize to brew it into potions later. I get up and start picking blueberries, blackberries, black huckleberries and hawthorn berries.

I remove the rain coat in my backpack from its bag and stash my berries inside of the bag. While wandering through the forest, I find countless feathers, poison Ivy and lavender. I wrap those in the rain coat and carefully put it next to the bag of berries.

Then I see a bush of wild roses. They're beautifully violet and smell divine. I bend down to pick some when I see a tiny cube near the roots of the bush. It's ambrosia! I snatch the cube away and put in my backpack along with a couple of wild roses. _This is turning out to be my lucky day._

Suddenly I hear the flapping of wings. I spin around and see a magnificent barn owl on the branch of an American holly. The barn owl's white and golden brown coat is astonishingly beautiful. It has noticed me and cocks its head to the side. Coincidentally, barn owl feathers can be used in several potions. _This truly is my lucky day!_

I sneak closer to the American holly, but out of the blue the owl spreads its wings and dives on top of me. In the blink of an eye, the bird transforms into Amelia, a daughter of Minerva. She throws me down in flight and pins me to the ground. She's wearing a cloak of owl feathers over a green backpack.

I start screaming and try to wriggle my way from under her, but she punches me in the face several times over. She bruises my right cheek, hurts my left eye and causes my lips to bleed.

"Nice trick you pulled back there, Kim. Really! None of us saw that coming," Amelia punches me in the stomach, "You think you're pretty clever stopping us all to get a head start, huh?"

I try to escape her grip, but I'm coughing too hard from the pain. Then Amelia places both her hands on my neck and pushes down on my windpipe. _Oh my goddess, she's going to strangle me?!_

Then all of the sudden, Kyle, the boy who sat next to me last night, runs up from behind her and bashes her skull in with a large rock. She tips over, blood seeping from her head. Then her green backpack and owl cloak dissolve into the ground. My 15-year-old savior – and now possibly assailant – faces me.

"Please, don't hurt me!" I put up my hands in surrender. I'm trembling like a leaf and I feel tears stinging in my eyes. Kyle squats down to my level and smiles in a friendly way.

"Why would I hurt you?" he asks puzzled. "Amelia already took a swing at you and you can barely breathe. You're hurt, unarmed and a bigger pacifist than Gandhi, although that might not be true after last night."

"I was provoked!" I snap at him. He rolls his eyes.

"How badly hurt are you anyway?" he fingers my cheek, eye and lips, and nods. "Just a few small bruises and those lips will probably swell up, but nothing serious. Your stomach?"

Before he tries to put his eager fingers on my stomach, I check it myself. It's still hurting, but not as much as before. The ambrosia I found earlier will probably heal it quickly enough.

"I'll be fine. If I can just find my ambrosia…" I search through my backpack for the little cube.

"You found ambrosia?" Kyle asks baffled. I only now notice that he's got a pink satchel on his back and a clear bangle bracelet on his wrist.

"Yeah, I found it under a bush of wild roses," I pull it out of my backpack and offer it to him, "You need some too?"

"Oh no! You're the victim here."

I nibble from the tiny cube. It tastes like the velvety lasagna my dad used to serve in his restaurant when I came in on Saturdays. Slowly, I feel the pain receding from my face and stomach.

"There's that catwalk ready face," Kyle chuckles when I'm fully healed. He pulls me up and we dart off together, but soon we run into two other demigods: Aglaeca and Adonis! Aglaeca grins from ear to ear when she sees me. She jumps me at once and when Kyle tries to pull her off of me, Adonis knocks him back.

Once again, I'm on the ground with a girl on top of me. Only difference is that my savior is now getting beat up too. However, Amelia had my arms pinned down while Aglaeca just sits on top of me. _Big mistake, psycho!_

I stretch my hands out and Aglaeca stiffens. I scramble to my feet and see that Kyle can handle Adonis quite well. I want to help him, but get an idea. I aim just for Aglaeca's head and stretch one of my hands. She starts blinking again and glares at me.

"What did you do?" she barks.

"I stopped your body from moving, but unfroze your head. I have a deal for you," I grin. "Killing seems to come easily for you, but it doesn't for me. Then again, I have the power to make anything and _anyone_ go ka-boom. Sound interesting?"

"I'm listening," she purses her lips.

"You can kill us now, but what will you do about demigods with actual powers? You won't stand a chance against them, but my magic could weaken or even kill them. What do you say we team up? I provide you with my spells and potions and allow you to kill whoever you want, in return for my life and Kyle's."

She smirks. "Alright. Sounds fair. I won't kill you if you help me with the others. We'll figure out what to do when it's just the four of us."

"It's a deal then, Aglaeca," I grin broadly.

"Call me Ace," she smiles. My magic wears off and she can move again. We both turn to our male allies. Kyle and Adonis launch at each other for what seems like the kill shot, but Aglae – I mean, Ace swings a massive hammer that blows Kyle away while I stretch my hands to stop Adonis. We inform the boys of our deal and they agree to it.

Our new alliance is tested already when three Half-Blood campers – Dexter, Aria and April if I remember correctly – ambush us. Ace and I work together while the boys watch and enjoy the show. Ace knocks the trio back with her hammer, allowing me to grab my enchanted acorns from my backpack.

I throw three of them to the demigods and when they hit the ground, three oak saplings burst from them and coil around their victims. Dexter and April get trapped in the fast-growing saplings, but Aria manages to escape. While magical oaks squeeze the life out of her two friends, she targets Kyle and Adonis.

As a daughter of Aphrodite, Aria is astonishingly beautiful, but it's her mesmerizing voice that's dangerous. She starts singing to Kyle and Adonis, which lures them to her. Seeing her basically seduce Adonis engulfs me with rage, so I charge over to her and punch her jaw shut, yelling:

"Get your own man!"

Ace then finishes the job by cracking her skull with her hammer. Meanwhile, Dexter and April have suffocated in the now almost fully grown oaks. I face Adonis.

"Did that banshee brainwash you?" I ask him. He shakes his head and smiles at me.

"Nah, I'm still me. Now, what did you mean by 'get your own man'?" he smirks. I blush and start giggling while I stroke my hair. I want to answer him, but Kyle beats me to it.

"Oh, it means nothing. It's not like she starts giggling like a schoolgirl when she sees a hot guy," he explains with heavy sarcasm and a grin. I glare at him, but surprisingly Adonis chuckles:

"Does she now? That's good to know." _Oh my goddess, this is like my own personal form of Tartarus!_

Then we're attacked. Again! _Ugh, it never rains but it pours._ This time it's Byron, a son of Jupiter, and not just any son of Jupiter. He literally comes flying in and knocks our socks off with a gust of wind. I get thrown into Adonis while Ace and Kyle are blown away between the trees. Adonis quickly pulls me up and drags me away.

Byron is on our tail and keeps blasting us with wind attacks. However, he's only been at Camp Jupiter for three weeks and doesn't know his powers too well yet. Using this much energy drains the boy entirely and he plummets to the ground. Adonis immediately grabs him by the head and keeps him in a lethal chokehold. His massive biceps cut off Byron's air supply and he goes limb.

Adonis releases him and when he hits the ground, his drawstring bag around his wrist disappears like it did with Amelia. Adonis, intimidating with his scars and black tattoos, lumbers over to me.

"Are you okay?"

"I am," I manage to say without giggling. "We need to find the others."

"Fine, we'll turn back," he nods. He walks in front me, but behind him I'm split. The pacifist side of me wants to run away from this overpowering killer while the boy crazy side of me wants this overpowering killer to put his hands all over me.


	6. Another Living thing to Take Care of

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A swan feather, four leaves of poison Ivy, ground-up lavender and a handful of hawthorn berries…the potion turns blood-red. _Done!_ Bubbling over a crackling fire, a small cauldron sits on top of rocks placed around the fire. Inside of it, a red liquid is brewing: a potion to vanquish Apollo kids.

After the quest started, I teamed up with Kyle, Ace and Adonis, but we were attacked and got separated. Adonis and I searched for Ace and Kyle for hours, but they were nowhere to be found. I suggested to Adonis that it might be better to set up camp and look further tomorrow. He grumbled, frustrated over his missing Half-Blood friend, but he agreed nonetheless.

We ran into a broad river strewn with pebbles and I decided it was potion time. I cast a spell which transformed the plastic cup in my backpack into a steel cauldron, filled it with water from the river and ordered Adonis to search for a swan feather. When he returned, the water was already boiling and I started adding ingredients. After he gave me the feather, I told him to look for smooth stones. He squinted at me doubtfully, but set off anyway. _Poor guy, I've known him for two days and I'm already bossing him around as if we were married for ages._

Now, at nighttime, I'm sitting under a large red maple tree near the river bank. Since my skin could function as a beacon for ships in the moonlight, Adonis ordered me to stay under the maple. There he comes carrying his green drawstring bag. He dumps the small, overloaded bag on the ground and takes out ten smooth stones. While he puts his bag on again, I wave my hands over the smooth stones and chant:

"What once was shall change into the object desired, until my magic has transpired."

The stones liquefy into grey puddles before they flow into the shape of empty glass vials and solidify again. They even have cute little corks.

"Cool," Adonis nods grinning.

"Magic," I smile doing jazz hands. I take the first vial and dunk it in the cauldron to fill it up. While I fill the others, Adonis watches me with his hands in his front pockets, standing there like a professional model. I admire him from the corner of my eye in a daze, but he notices me. _And I thought I was being stealthy._

"Is something wrong?" he asks.

"Huh?", I snap out of my daze, "No, nothing's wrong."

"Then why are you staring at me?", his voice becomes angry, "Because of my scars?"

"What? No, no, I wasn't looking at your scars." To be honest, I've already gotten used to them. His muscles, on the other hand, …

He calms down and shrugs. "Then what were you looking at?"

_Oh, I was just staring at your freaking amazing anatomy._ Of course, I'm not going to tell him that. I bite my lip, contemplating what to say. _Well, here goes nothing!_

"You," I answer, "the whole of you. I think you're very attractive and I have certain feelings for you."

I expected him to laugh in my face, but he stays remarkably calm. He squats down next to me.

"I figured as much. Now that we're being honest," he scratches the back of his neck, "I think you're attractive too and I'm starting to have feelings for you as well."

He sits down and crosses his legs. I face him. The corner of his mouth twitches into a sheepish smile and I can't help but giggle, but not ridiculously like I always do. The air between us suddenly seems electrified and I feel drawn into him. We both inch closer together.

"That's good to know," I mutter, our lips nearly touching. However, before we are able to have the kiss I've been fantasying about for two days, a burst of light appears in front of us. Our first instinct screams 'attack', but it's in fact a message from the gods. _They sure know how to ruin a moment._

From the burst of light, the faces appear of the campers that died today. They're all so young, so innocent-looking. I personally assisted in the deaths of several of them. _What have we done?_ The faces vanish and the light dims. Only seventeen of us left.

Adonis gets up and bolts off without an explanation. I wrap my arms around my legs and stare into the now empty cauldron. I feel just as empty. _Ugh, I hate being depressed._ I sigh, take my cauldron and stroll to the river causing my skin to glimmer blue as soon as the moonlight hits it.

As I'm rinsing the steel pot in the flowing water, I suddenly hear a rustle from the bushes behind me. I turn around, but there's no one in sight.

"Adonis? Is that you?" I call into the darkness, but no one answers. The bushes rustle again.

"Who's there?" I call again and I realize I left my backpack and potion vials under the red maple. _Great! A demigod might attack me and I'm alone and without a decent defense_. Surprisingly though, a Pegasus appears from the bushes.

The winged horse is astonishing. It has a custard yellow coat, long brown manes and a brown tail, which is bound together by a star-studded band, and its viridian wings are covered in sparkling glitter. It has a moon pictured on both its thighs, which glimmer just like my skin, and several small stars, which also glimmer blue, are scattered all over its body. The Pegasus walks up to me and nuzzles my head. Its warm breath tousles my hair.

"Hé, easy there buddy!" I laugh. Now I notice a star-studded collar around the horse's neck and a saddle bag on its back. Under the collar sticks a note. I take it and read it while I stroke the Pegasus over its neck and manes.

_My dear Kim,_

_My beautiful, beautiful daughter. Words cannot express the pain I feel because your competitors equal your strength and persistence. Only difference is that they will not hesitate to kill, while you prefer your pacifism._

_You must change your ways, sweetheart. Hate me or your Praetor for what we are putting you through, but do not give up. Fight, kill, use your magic! Harmony, your new Pegasus mare, will bring you just that bit closer to Mount Olympus._

_I believe in you and hope to see you soon,_

_your mother, Hekate._

_PS. Don't forget to keep your legs spread!_

"Oh mom!" I say appalled, but then I read further than the end of my nose.

_I meant on the horse._

"Oooh," I turn to Harmony, my female Pegasus, "So, are you going to get me to Olympus?"

She neighs and points her snout to the saddle bag on her back. I open it and find herbs, spices, plants, flowers, empty potion vials, a packet of beef jerky and a scroll. I take the scroll and unravel it. _Another message?_

_We just met, and I want to help you get to Olympus, but I can only take you to Middle Island. Sorry, boss._

"Aw, will you only fly me to Middle Island, gorgeous?" I pat Harmony on the back. She snorts and stomps her left front hoof on the river bank. Middle Island is still 58 miles away. Beats walking though. Just then Adonis flies in on another Pegasus. _So, all of us got one?_

His is an enormous stallion; Harmony is a pony in comparison. _I guess size does matter to the gods._ Adonis' Pegasus has a coppery coat that turns darker at its legs and neck, while its manes, tail and wings are a deep black. Its saddle bag has a hammer and anvil pictured on it.

"Hey! Look what I got," Adonis beams. Somehow he looks even hotter sitting on his horse.

"Oh, I've noticed. I got one too," I reply, scratching Harmony on the head. He eyes her and nods.

"Someone's mom likes to show off a bit."

I stick my tongue out to him and lead Harmony to the red maple. We break camp and I hand Adonis five vanquishing potions while I keep the rest. I mount Harmony and spur her on:

"To Middle Island!"

She gallops, flaps her wings and raises off the ground. She soars in the air, her glittery wings sparkling and her manes waving in the wind. My skin glimmers in the moonlight as do Harmony's moons and stars. Adonis and his large stallion fly sideways behind us.

I feel so alive and free riding and flying on Harmony. The night's sky around us is peacefully beautiful. The stars twinkle while Harmony and I glimmer. I'm giddy with excitement and can't seem to get rid of my broad grin.

Then an arrow whizzes right by me. Harmony neighs and tumbles around to avoid other arrows. I look over my shoulder just in time to see a dead body fall from the sky.

"Adonis!" I scream, panic surging through me like a fire through kindle wood. Yet Adonis is safe; he's flying below me on his coppery Pegasus. _Then who died, who shot the arrow and who killed that person?_

My questions are soon met by a sickening screech. A flock of harpies, winged women with bird-like talons, fly above us. They're chasing Sonny, a 14-year-old daughter of Apollo. The girl is really short, has dirty blond hair and a small yellow drawstring bag. Her beige Pegasus is struggling to escape the harpies' grip.

One of the harpies has a bow and notches an arrow aimed for my head. She releases it with a cackle and it shoots straight at me. I stretch my hands out, stop it midair and steer Harmony around it. Harpies start to surround us, cawing at our Pegasi.

Adonis takes a piece of wood from his drawstring bag and smacks the screeching bird-women off of him. I, on the other hand, flee right into Sonny and the harpies around her. She's bleeding heavily and glares at me. A dangerous smirk forms on her face and I see her grab for her ring.

She wants to kill both of us in a last desperate attempt, but unfortunately for her, I spent the evening brewing a vanquishing potion. I take one of my vials from the saddle bag and propel it to Sonny. Before she can touch her ring, my vial bursts on her.

When the potion hits her, she spontaneously combusts. Her death screams sound worse than the harpies' screeches. She explodes in a burst of light and her bag dissolves in the air. Her beige Pegasus now has free passage from the harpies and flies back home.

However, Adonis and I are still mobbed by the winged women. We spur our horses on to fly faster, but the harpies stay close. When I see Adonis take a can of Greek fire out of his bag, I know what I have to do. Greek fire destroys anything in its path, but harpies are impervious to fire, so at most it would slow them down.

But not if I combined it with my magic. Not if I focused all my energy on the can of Greek fire. Luckily, the moon shines bright, so I'm thrice as strong as usual. I let Harmony fly straight, sit up on my saddle and stretch my arms out to fully take advantage of the moon. When Adonis throws his Greek fire at the flock of harpies, I cast my spell:

"I am the light. I am one too strong to fight. Screeching spawn of hell, death takes you with this spell."

My glimmering skin turns normal as an orb of blue light shoots out from me and hits Adonis' Greek fire. The can explodes and green fire and blue light burst outward in waves of blazing energy.

The harpies, at the heart of the explosion, screech one last time before their entire flock is evaporated in our combo attack. The night turns peaceful again and I lie backwards on Harmony's back. That spell drained me entirely; I feel exhausted. Adonis and his Pegasus fly a distance away from me.

"We did it!", he cheers, but his smile turns into panic, "Kim, look out!"

A new harpy knocks me off of Harmony and I fall down. I don't have the energy to flail or scream. I simply close my eyes. _Pluto can take me._ Suddenly, I hit something hard. I expect more blows, but I only feel a breeze and someone's arms around me.

Adonis dove after me on his stallion and caught me in his arms. I hug him tight. This is the second time a guy saved my life. _This damsel in distress thing is becoming a nasty habit_. However, harpies are closing in on us again.

Then Ace and Kyle swoop in on a grey Pegasus with black manes and tail, and a pink Pegasus with white manes and tail respectively. They knock out a few harpies before Ace plays some weird mind trick on them. Most of them turn towards a golden-haired girl on a Pegasus with shell braids in the distance. Whichever harpy doesn't fall for Ace's trick gets slain by her and Kyle.

"Are you two lovebirds done yet?" Kyle smirks to Adonis and me when all the harpies are gone.

"Why? Are you jealous?" Adonis scoffs. We all land and Adonis carries me to Harmony.

"Thank you for saving me," I want to give him a peck on the cheek, but he turns his head. My innocent 'thank you' turns into a full-on kiss on the mouth as I press my lips against his. When we break our very first kiss, Adonis has put me on my saddle and lets go of me.

Without another word, he walks back to his black horse and mounts it. Our four Pegasi take off again and we fly to Middle Island. Yet I hardly notice the flight because Adonis' kiss numbed me. Now I'm frozen in place.


	7. Pandora's Box

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Once our Pegasi had dropped us off at Middle Island, they flew back to Olympus. Now that the four of us were back on land, our alliance seemed changed as if the dynamic had been fundamentally altered. The time apart sure played a part, but my kissing Adonis before we took off on the Pegasi was the biggest culprit.

How I knew? Well, for starters, both of us hadn't said a word during the flight and on land, there was this uncomfortable tension zapping between us. Kyle and Ace, however, seemed the best of buds now. The stand-off between Adonis and I awkwardly continued as he scratched the back of his neck and I stared at my feet. This lasted until Kyle finally exclaimed:

"Oh for the love of Jupiter, make out already!"

This made both of us chuckle and lightened the tension. We stepped closer to each other and I stood on my tiptoes, lifting my face to his. Our kiss was short and innocent, a mere peck on the lips, but butterflies were still having a dance party in my stomach.

"Was that so hard?" Ace grinned.

"I bet something was hard," Kyle howled with laughter. I glared at him and Adonis protectively put his arm around my waist. I felt bad for him in a way. Here was this tall, buff guy who could win this quest on his own, but instead he got himself a girlfriend. Adonis was emotionally involved with me, whether he realized it or not.

Next, we searched for water and kindle wood. Once we had a fire going, I got into my potion grind again. If I was not mistaken, Pomegranate and Ezra were still alive, so a vanquishing potion for Pluto kids was in order. Since there were only two of them, I decided not make a big batch.

Adonis helped me brew it and even came up with a nickname for me in the process. While he assisted me, he affectionately called me "His flame". _Get it? Hellfire, flame?_ I thought it was cute; it certainly made my girlhood tremble.

Anyway, as we were flirting and brewing, Kyle and Ace started sparring. Nothing aggressive, just training. Ace kicked Kyle's butt several times, but he kept getting up with a wide grin on his face as if he was actually enjoying Ace beating him black and blue. I wouldn't be surprised if the two of them had their own love affair.

After I filled a handful of vials with the black-colored potion, we ate the beef jerky from Harmony's saddle bag and drank hot chocolate from the thermos in Ace's red backpack. Kyle joked that I should have made soup instead of a potion, but I asked him if he'd rather have two powerful opponents or be hungry. He shut up.

To be honest, I actually regretted not using all the herbs and spices at my disposal to cook some soup. It felt like ages since I cooked a warm, delicious pot of steaming soup, let alone a tasty broth. Back in Camp Jupiter, I would serve a different kind of soup each week. Oh gods, how I missed camp…

My potion grind wasn't in vain, though. Soon after dinner, Ezra jumped us. I wanted to stretch my hands out to freeze him, but somehow I couldn't move my arms. It was as if someone had grabbed me from behind and was clutching my arms against my body. I was useless while Ace, Kyle and Adonis struggled to overpower the heavily trained Ezra.

However, I heard someone breathing in my ears, which meant there actually was someone holding me down, only they were somehow invisible. Luckily, my second oldest sister Astrid wrote a spell that counters invisibility.

"You may be slick, and you may be sly, but by my hands, you shall die," I chanted. The force around my arms suddenly disappeared, but I heard someone screaming right next to me. It was a girl's scream.

The scream intensified until a golden ring dropped on the ground and a panting Pomegranate became visible. The ring she dropped looked all sizzled up like charcoaled bacon on a burning barbecue.

"Pomegranate!" Ezra called while kicking Adonis in the gut. _So the Pluto kids teamed up? I didn't see that coming._

"Your spell said 'die'. Why isn't she dead yet?" Ace asked as she recovered from one of Ezra's blows. I rolled my eyes at her.

"Magic isn't an exact science. Besides, you can't kill demigods with a spell."

Pomegranate still gasped for breath as if she had spent her whole life under water and only now came up for air. I took one of the Pluto vanquishing potions and put an end to her misery. As she burned and screamed, I threw another black potion vial at Ezra. Both demigods went up in flames and everything became quiet again.

We were all exhausted after the bloodbath at Half-Blood Hill, the aerial fight with the Pegasi and harpies, and the latest Pluto attack. We decided to go to sleep and take turns at standing guard. Adonis lay down beside me, spooning me with his tall figure. His presence didn't comfort me, though. Guilt flooded me as my eyes closed.

My dreams were restless and blurry. I saw the faces of the demigods I had killed, the children I had sent to the Underworld. I had gone from pacifist to serial killer in a day. How easy had it been for me to throw those vials? How little had I felt when they screamed in agony? How guilty did I feel having a steady alliance and a boyfriend to boot?

I wake up after several hours of troubled sleep and stand guard while the others snooze. The night sky suddenly brightens in a flash of light, showing the faces of the newly deceased demigods. Sonny, the Apollo girl I vanquished, is among them. A twinge of guilt stings me once again.

I sigh, sit down on the ground and poke the smoldering campfire with a broken branch. Then I notice a girl sitting across from me. It's not Ace, or one of the other female campers. I've never seen this girl before, but she is unbelievably and irresistibly beautiful. She beckons me with a sweet smile, her violet eyes hypnotizing me.

I get up after her, incapable of resisting to follow her. She beckons me further and leads me away from my allies, but I'm unable to think about them. I'm utterly focused on this astonishingly gorgeous girl.

She takes me deeper into the woods, my surroundings darkening under the overhanging branches. Something in the back of my mind warns me about her, signals me to stop and turn back, but I'm numb. I can only follow after her.

Suddenly, I can see clearly again. We're out of the woods at a small pond. The moonlight gives it a silver shine on its watery surface and makes my skin glimmer blue. I step closer to the pond and notice a silver pedestal. On it rests an exquisite Greek vase. It's decorated with priceless gems: diamonds, amber, emeralds, amethysts, rubies, sapphires and pearls. It radiates with a blinding light. I have to cover my eyes.

"Come open me," a warm, mature woman's voice beckons. I glance at the mesmerizing girl, assuming she spoke to me, but she's hiding behind a tree. I can't read her expression. Is she afraid? Anxious? Does she know what's going on?

"Come, come open and see what's inside," the woman's voice beckons again. I realize it's coming from the vase. _How in the world can an inanimate object speak to me?_ However crazy this seems to me, I'm drawn into the vase. I step closer and open its diamond-encrusted top. I see a single spike and a blowgun inside of it.

"Come, take them. Use them, shoot someone," the alluring woman's voice says.

"Who?" I ask absentmindedly.

"You only need to shoot one person," she responds, but then she pauses. "It must be one of your allies."

I flinch back and step away from the vase. Which sociopath came up with this idea? _Only kill one, but it must be an ally_. Then again, it's probably the same sociopath who came up with this entire quest.

I want to step further back, but the voice calls to me. "Don't leave! Don't leave me here, please."

I step closer again because I don't want to upset her. _Upset a talking vase? What's the matter with me?_

"If you shoot one of your allies, they will die instantly," she offers. "When one dies, they will all die, except for you. You can go on to Olympus, to your mother Hekate."

The idea of winning this quest, of seeing my mom, draws me in closer. I reach into the vase, but before I can grab the blowgun, a thought stops me. _What about Adonis? _If one of my allies dies, they all die…Adonis would die. I couldn't possibly kill him.

"You've only known the boy for two days. Does puppy-love mean more to you than glory?" the voice sounds reasonable…if I were a ruthless fighting machine like most Camp Jupiter kids.

"You don't know him and you most certainly don't know me. To hell with glory!" I remove my hand from the vase and run back through the woods.

"Nooooo, come back! Take the blowgun…kill them…do as Pandora says…" the woman's voice begs relentlessly, but she made the wrong offer. After a quick run, I'm back at our campfire. My allies are still asleep…and alive!

In the morning, when the beckoning girl and vase have been thoroughly wiped from my mind, Adonis and I head into the forest to look for food. After last night's potion grind, I used up most of my supplies, so I replenish my stock along our search. Yet we don't just find food or herbs; a dead body lies sprawled on the forest floor.

Adonis tips the body over and a badly cut up Kalila is revealed to us. Her body's covered in gashes and blood stains, but the kill shot was an arrow through her heart. _Poor Kalila, she only wanted to prove that she wasn't like the other Venus kids._ Adonis notices the tears forming in my eyes and comforts me with a hug.

We move on, but I get distracted in my search for plants and berries. I suddenly find myself all alone in the dark forest. _Where did Adonis go?_ I retrace my steps, but my horrible sense of direction makes me stumble across another body, another Camp Jupiter kid.

Vayu, a son of Favonius, stares at me with his dead, glazy eyes. I didn't always see eye to eye with his strict policy as a centurion, but as a 15-year-old boy, he was still enjoyable company. Then I notice a spike sticking in his stomach; a spike similar to that in the vase last night. _Apparently, someone didn't feel the same remorse I did._

"It seems like we have a third performance on our hands," a voice says from behind me. I spin around and see Sailee, a stunning, fiery red-headed daughter of Apollo from Camp Half-Blood. I remember her well. During the interview, the boys were split between her, Kalila and me. She has a golden bow and a quiver of arrows on her back.

"So you killed Kalila," I realize. "Vayu too?"

"What can I say? I hate duets. On our program for this morning: _Wicked_," Sailee smirks. _Haha, a joke about witches. _She notches an arrow on her bow and releases, but I stretch my hands out and freeze it mid-air. Slightly frustrated, she launches a barrage of arrows at me, which I freeze each time.

However, I didn't pay attention to her first arrow unfreezing. It flies again and hits me in my right shoulder. Sailee sees an opportunity and swoops her bow under my legs, flooring me. She towers over me and smirks.

"There's a saying in theatre: break a leg," she stomps her foot down on my left leg and snaps the bone, evidently breaking my leg, "Now, my dear, the curtain drops for you."

She notches another arrow on her bow, but I notice something from behind her. Now I smirk.

"Show's over, drama queen."

Next, a vial breaks on her back and she goes up in flames, screaming. The fire is as red as her fiery hair. When she explodes, Adonis appears before me. He threw one of the Apollo potions I gave him.

"End scene," he bows theatrically. I chuckle, but my broken leg and wounded shoulder send pain through my body. I reach into my backpack, take the vial of healing Gorgon's blood and gulp it down, which heals my wounds entirely. Adonis helps me up, but before we head back to Ace and Kyle, I propose something to him:

"I feel bad leaving Vayu and Kalila to rot out in the open. Could you help me give them something close to a decent burial?"

He shakes his head. "Praise yourself lucky that I don't want to die a virgin."

I grab one of the remaining enchanted acorns in my backpack and throw it to Vayu's corpse. A magic sapling bursts from the acorn, wraps around Vayu and grows into a mighty oak. Adonis helps me look for Kalila's body and I repeat the acorn burial with her.

"Now they will live on as oaks," I wipe a tear from my eyes. Adonis watches me quizzically.

"You really don't belong in this quest, do you?" he wonders.

I shrug. "We can't all be murderers."


	8. All The Stars

** JustALittleInfinity's chapter on Wattpad: 72667837-writers-games-%CE%BC%CE%AC%CF%87%CE%B7-%CF%84%CF%89%CE%BD-%CE%B1%CE%B4%CE%B5%CE%BB%CF%86%CF%8E%CE%BD-battle-of-the?utm_source=email-uploaded_story&amp;ref_id=13312859**

Tragedy hit us like a car about to crash against a brick wall: Ace died. Her cold body lay on the ground, her limbs twisted in ways it shouldn't. Her coppery skin had dulled, become lighter as rigor mortis set in. Her thick black hair was an utter mess, leaves and soil sticking to it. Her meteor hammers, red backpack and silver chain-link bracelet vanished into oblivion similar to the way her dying breath vanished from her lungs.

We were guttered. Our alliance had made it two whole days, and then she died. We didn't know what to do next. What could we do?

Adonis went into a fit of rage. He stomped to the nearest tree and started hitting it with his bare fists. Soon his knuckles bled and colored the bark dark red, nearly brown. Punching the tree until he bled didn't satisfy him enough, though. He threw his backpack off his back, grabbed a sword and chopped away at the harmless wood. He didn't stop until the tree tipped over and fell.

Kyle reacted very differently. He simply sat there on his knees, staring at her corpse. If he didn't breathe every so often, you would have sworn you saw two dead bodies. Yet he didn't cry. He spilled no tears for the dead. That upset me most of all. _Where are your tears, Kyle? Don't you have a heart? Cry, godsdammit!_

I cried. I cried until my eyes were sore. Dense, salty tears streamed down my face, staining my red shirt. Behind me, I heard Adonis spitting out profanities towards the helpless tree getting massacred by his strong, skilled hands. My eyes drifted next to me, to Kyle still staring, nothing but desolation in his eyes.

I got up and picked flowers. Although Ace wasn't a girly girl, she at least deserved a small bouquet of flowers. I managed to find a wide range of colorful flowers: purple, red, yellow, white, pink and dark blue. My amateurish bouquet in hand, I trudged back to her body and laid it on her chest. I tried to bend her arms like they do in funeral homes, but they were still too stiff from rigor mortis. Kyle spoke up then, his voice frail and stammering:

"She would have snorted if she had seen you plant them on her."

"I think she would have appreciated the gesture," I replied. There was no point in arguing as we were all grieving over an ally that saved our lives several times.

The sun was well over its peak when our own survival occurred to us again. Adonis chopped the tree up, but this time to make a shelter for us and to provide wood for a fire. While he built something to keep us safe for the night, I started a fire. Kyle went hunting and returned with a meaty goose.

I prepared it like I would a chicken at home and seasoned it with some of the herbs I had found on the island. After roasting it over the fire, we ate the juicy bird in silence. I was pleased at how the goose turned out, even though my culinary repertoire didn't quite include game. It very nearly tasted like chicken, but not really.

As I nibbled on a goose drumstick, I thought about all the kids that died already. Ace, Amelia, Dexter, April, Aria, Byron, Sonny, Pomegranate, Ezra, Kalila, Vayu, Sailee and the ones whose names escape me. So many demigods dead in such a short period of time. What kind of parents do the gods have to be to allow half of their offspring to get slaughtered? Do they cry over their children? Is Mount Olympus filled with blubbering gods now? Did Jupiter need a tissue to blow his nose after all the tears he shed?

After dinner I lie on my back under the small overhang Adonis built and close my eyes. I hear someone shuffle to me, but don't look up. Then I feel a rough hand brush a lock of my hair from my face.

"My flame, do you want to look at the stars with us?" Adonis whispers into my ears. I flash my eyes open and gaze into the dark pools of his eyes.

"I'd rather just go to sleep."

"I'll take my shirt off if you join us," he smirks. As much as I would love to drool over his bare chest, I don't want him to get pneumonia out here.

"Slow down there, Magic Mike," I chuckle. His onyx eyes burn with intensity as he brings his lips to mine. Instinctively, I press my lips harder against his and put one hand on his shoulder and the other on his chest. He pulls his mouth away and gulps for air.

"Damn, your kisses will be the death of me," he breathes. "You're definitely better at this boyfriend-girlfriend stuff than me."

"I did have an on-and-off-again relationship with my ex until last year," I mutter as I stroke the outlines of his dark tattoos on his lower right arm.

"An ex, huh?" he grins, curious yet unware of my dating history. "Why did you guys break up?"

"Well, him being an evil monster sent by a vengeful god certainly contributed to my decision," I snicker darkly.

"WHAT?", _that threw him off_, "What happened?"

"Soon after I turned sixteen, he attacked me, but my dad saved me. As we fled to Camp Jupiter, Dad casually mentioned that I was a demigod," my self-deprecating smile fades, "and then Brandon killed him."

"Where is this Brandon-punk now?" Adonis growls. I'm debating with myself if I enjoy the protective tone in his voice.

"I don't know. Last time I saw him, I bound his powers and left him as the weak mortal I had turned him into."

I failed to mention that Brandon was both my first time and my first spell. Instead, I traced the lines of the three scars across the left side of Adonis' face and asked the question that had lingered in the back of my mind this entire quest:

"How did you get these scars?"

"When I was about twelve, my mom and I were in this huge car accident…"

"O my goddess!" I interrupt him. "Your mom, was she…? I mean, did she…?"

"No, she survived. She did go blind after that, though, and she was in a coma for a long time", he sighs. "With kind regards of Aphrodite."

"I'm sorry…"

"Nah, don't be," he smiles. "It's not your fault."

"But I dragged these bad memories up."

"I did too with your ex. Let's call it even," he gets up and drags me away from the shelter. In the moonlight my skin starts to glimmer. I still can't get over the fact that no one has found us simply by following my blue glow. I mean, how difficult is it to track a moving blue light? The pesky mosquitoes that swarm me sure don't seem to have any trouble.

We sit down by the campfire, where Kyle is already peering up at the stars. Adonis throws his arm over my shoulder and follows Kyle's example. I look up too and notice something odd. The stars seem different.

"Is it just me or do the stars look weird tonight?" I ask still stargazing.

"That's why I dragged you out here," Adonis smiles.

"Because the stars are off?" I furrow my brow skeptically.

"Look closely, my flame," he whispers. I study the sky trying to distinguish the few constellations I know and I notice new shapes in the arrangement of the stars. For example, I see a winding spiral, its tail pointed westward.

"West," I muse and then it hits me, "Vayu, son of the West wind! O my goddess, the gods turned their children into constellations!"

"That took you long enough," Kyle chuckles. For the rest of the evening we gaze at the stars together pointing out constellations that match fallen demigods. I point at a beautiful girl with seductive eyes and an umbrella over her shoulder, which I suppose represents Kalila. Kyle sees an owl's face, which matches Amelia. Adonis notices a Greek drama mask that is half smiling, half crying and links it to Sailee.

As we continue to stargaze, I snuggle closer to Adonis. He lets me sit between his legs and crosses his ripped arms over my waist. I rest my hands on his and lean my head back on his shoulder. I'm surprised at how comfortable we have become together, but it makes me dread what would happen if it's just Kyle, him and me at the very end.

Suddenly Kyle points at the stars. He's incredibly excited.

"Look, a Warhammer!"

Adonis and I look in the direction he's pointing and there it is: a hammer composed of stars, Ares' tribute to Ace. The gods do care about their children! _Mom, will you do the same for me?_


	9. Dead on Arrival (Possibly?)

** JustALittleInfinity's chapter on Wattpad: 75202572-writers-games-%CE%BC%CE%AC%CF%87%CE%B7-%CF%84%CF%89%CE%BD-%CE%B1%CE%B4%CE%B5%CE%BB%CF%86%CF%8E%CE%BD-battle-of-the**

Two weeks. That's how long this quest has been going on. It's been nearly two weeks since I've seen my sisters and Toni. Two weeks since I started killing innocent children. You could also say it has been two weeks since I met Adonis, but if that's supposed to cheer me up, you are sorely mistaken.

O, wait? You haven't heard? Adonis died. My handsome, strong, caring Adonis died. It happened a week ago when he, Kyle and I finally reached the New York suburbs. We nearly did a victory dance seeing as the Empire State Building wasn't that far away anymore, but something decided to crash the party.

A pack of monsters ended our brief happiness. We ran, but a hydra latched onto Adonis. It was over in seconds. Last thing I saw of him was the hydra ripping his body open with its claws. A sickening sound of human intestines splashing on the ground accompanied the visceral sight.

The event was so chaotic I didn't realize my boyfriend had died until Kyle and I stopped running. When it had happened, I had only peeked over my shoulder while Kyle dragged me forward. I hadn't made a peep. Yet when I realized the horrific truth, I collapsed. I shrieked, screaming until my lungs hurt. I was wailing and sobbing like a toddler whose parents just told her they had eaten her Halloween candy.

Kyle granted me a moment to process my grief, but when I kept crying and screamed louder and louder, he put an end to it. I suppose he was looking out for the both of us, not wanting the monsters to find us because of my hysteria. So he gripped my shoulders and looked me in the eyes.

"Kim, you need to be quiet! Please, stop screaming," he urged me.

"NO," I cried, shaking my head and sobbing. I must have looked like an utter mess, because Kyle frowned in disgust. "Adonis died! He's gone!"

This was followed by a string of unintelligible words, sobs, mumbling, and short shaky breaths. At least, that's what Kyle told me afterwards. I hardly remember it now, probably because my mind blocked out the bad memory. Kyle then held my shoulders firmly and shook me once:

"Kim, snap out of it!"

Startled, I inhaled and squeezed my lips close. Kyle's stern face looked blurry through my teary eyes, but his voice sounded clearer than anything.

"I know that he died and I know that it's heart-breaking, but we need to move on. _You_ need to move on," when he stressed 'you', he shook me lightly for good measure.

"But I loved him," I whimpered. He looked down and sighed. He clearly didn't want to say what he was about to, but it needed to be done.

"You knew the guy for a week, tops! And let's face it, you two were doomed from the start: _all but one will perish_ doesn't leave much room for interpretation, does it?"

"I could have…" I started to whisper.

"What? Do you honestly believe you could have changed the gods' mind? Would they have spared you because you were in love?" He didn't need me to answer; my silence already told him he had convinced me.

"What do we do now?" I asked as I wiped the tears from my face.

"You're going to have to be your bad-ass self again because those monsters are still after us."

So here we are a week later in Queens. It's already dark out, but we haven't found a place to stay yet. The streets are strangely deserted, so we can't ask anyone for help. My backpack tinkles with potion vials, my feet are killing me and I want to go to sleep, but the bright light of Manhattan in the distance beckons me further.

"Kim, can we please stop for the night? We're not going to make it to the Empire State Building for at least another day. We need to rest," Kyle whines.

"Just a little further, Kyle. I can almost smell the victory," I say, determined to keep trekking.

"That must be the smell of my feet because they haven't rested in hours. Come on, my blisters even have blisters!"

I sigh and turn to him:

"Fine! We'll ring someone's doorbell and…"

Somebody screams. We spin around, but don't know where the scream came from. Soon a cackle, roar and laugh follow. _This means trouble._

"I have a bad feeling about this," Kyle mutters. I reach for my backpack, grab a few vials and toss him some.

"Keep your eyes open. Who knows what's about to hit us."

Unfortunately, we're on the middle of a cross-section, so the danger could come from any direction. The ground starts to shake beneath us, but not like an earthquake. It shakes with intervals as if something huge is stepping our way, but suddenly the tremors stop.

"My flame," I hear Adonis' voice call from behind me. I whirl around, but instead of my lost lover, I find a gigantic one-eyed man. The Cyclops is standing in the middle of one of the streets of the cross-section. He has a face only a mother could love, which smirks at me in contempt.

"Not who you were expecting?" he laughs in his real voice, a deep baritone. I should have remembered that Cyclopes can mimic any voice perfectly, but this is just cruel.

"No, my boyfriend was far handsomer than you," I scoff. I turn to Kyle, but I see him staring at the opposing street of the cross-section. A pair of gorgons grin at us, the snakes they have for hair slithering fiercely. The first gorgon has green vine snakes hissing at us, but I must admit, their flashy green scales beautifully complement her emerald-green eyes. The second one has corn snakes coiling all over her head, which have a reddish orange color and large darker-colored spots, which match the Gorgon's blood-red eyes.

Next, a chimera stalks between the two monstrous women. It has the head of a lion, the body of a goat and a diamondback snake as a tail. Its lion's head licks its lips as if we're its dinner, while its snake tail exposes its venomous fangs.

A second pair of heavy footsteps comes from the street to our right, where a snorting minotaur lumbers to us. It wields a massive stone hammer and aims its bull horns at us. To our left, a gargantuan three-headed black Rottweiler bounds our way.

"Great, we're surrounded by monsters on all sides. Any suggestions?" Kyle whispers. I peer at the Cerberus clone. Its legs are high enough for us to pass underneath.

"Yes," I whisper and then I yell, "Run!"

I stretch my hands and freeze all the monsters. I grab Kyle by the collar and drag him to the enormous Rottweiler.

"Aren't we supposed to run _away_ from them?" he shouts terrified. I swing him in front of me and shove him through the Cerberus' front legs.

"This is a short-cut," I run after him under the colossal Rottweiler. We make it to the end of the street and turn left, but there we spot a new terror. The hydra, the nine-headed, acid-spitting reptile that killed Adonis, has its back turned towards us and is busy devouring a chestnut-haired girl, which I recognize as Malissa, a daughter of Juventas, after it has swallowed her whole.

At its feet, Ray, a grandson of Apollo and Nemesis, feebly tries to hit it with orbs of light, but it spits acid at him once and he dissolves into a steaming pile of human goo. Then one of its heads peers over its back and flashes several rows of sharp teeth. The entire hydra faces us, nine identical heads exposing a gazillion amount of teeth that could blender you to pulp with a single bite.

"Kim, let's go," Kyle pulls me back, but comes to a full stop when he sees what's behind us, "Oh crap!"

Three drachnes, reptilian women with long snake tails as legs, slither in place, blocking the street behind them. They're wearing silver armor and gold weapons, and they also have long, slick, black hair.

"Sssssorry, no passssss for you, kiddiesssss," one of them hisses. In a matter of seconds, the monsters from the cross-section have caught up with us too. Now we're surrounded from all sides by almost double the amount of creatures than before. My patience has run out.

"I've had it!" I shout. "How is this even fair anymore? What, sending 24 demigods after us wasn't challenging enough, so you summoned your monster minions?"

The creatures in possession of eye-brows furrow them in confusion, while the eye-brow-less ones cock their heads to the side. Kyle cowers behind me.

"With all the terrible ordeals we've already had to face, I would have thought you gods would slow it down and at least give us a fighting chance, but apparently, you just love to watch us get totally annihilated, don't you? You bunch of self-absorbed pricks!"

"Kim, don't upset the mighty, thunderbolt shooting gods," Kyle tugs at my sleeve, but I shrug him off.

"I mean, I killed demigods, evaporated harpies and withstood Pandora!"

During my rant, the Cyclops stepped closer staring at me in shock with his one eye. The idiot is now in firing range.

"Well, you know what? Bring it on, you glorified pets!" I throw an orange potion vial at the Cyclops and a sudden flash of light bursts from it. I shield myself and Kyle from the light, but the Cyclops' eye receives the full blow.

"Aaaah, my eye!" he screams, covering his face with his hands. He stumbles backward, crashes into the minotaur and hydra, and floors them. The other monsters attack, but now I smash a grey potion vial on the ground. When it breaks, a cloud of mist billows outward and covers the entire city block in a thick fog.

"Stay close to me, Kyle! Chaos is about to ensue," I grin confidently.

"This was your plan all along?" he asks baffled.

I nod. "Shout when you see a monster."

Two figures appear from the fog: the gorgons. They're bewildered by my mist potion, but when they spot Kyle and me, they smirk and their snakes hiss harmoniously. I stretch my hands out to freeze them and look for the monster I need. It doesn't step out from the fog, so I'll have to do it the magical way: one of my mist potion's sweet bonus features is that I can control the fog without casting a spell.

"Mist, show me the minotaur!" I demand as I raise my arm. The thick fog disperses and reveals the minotaur swinging at nothing in particular with his hammer. "Hé, big ugly hybrid, come and get us!"

I immediately have its attention and it stomps over to us. I take Kyle's hand and lead him to where I froze the gorgons.

"What are you doing?" the stress is evident in Kyle's voice. I keep my eyes on the charging minotaur.

"Trust me! When I say 'jump', you jump to the side, okay?"

"You want me to jump off a bridge too while we're at it?" he jokes nervously.

"Don't tempt me."

The minotaur towers above us, swings its stone hammer over its head and brings it down heavily.

"Jump!" I shout. Kyle jumps to the right and I jump to the left while the minotaur's hammer smashes the gorgons to mush. Next, I throw a brown potion vial at the minotaur and cast a vanquishing spell:

"Mighty minotaur, prepare to growl your final roar, for I will end your reign of blood and gore."

The minotaur lights up and turns to dust as its hammer drops to the ground.

"Chimera!" Kyle shouts. I spin around just in time to see the chimera open its mouth and breathe fire. I duck and the flames blaze over my head. If Kyle hadn't warned me, I would have been toast.

The chimera pounces me, but I roll over the ground. I jump to my feet and start running, but the chimera follows after me and manages to cut me off. It raises its snake tail and the diamondback launches at me, but I stretch my hands and freeze the creature entirely.

"Kyle?" I call out because I don't see him anywhere in the fog. "Mist, show me Kyle!"

The fog disperses again and I see Kyle being chased by the Cerberus clone. I want to help him, but also remember the frozen chimera. It needs to go before I can take out the overgrown Rottweiler.

"Mist, hide the chimera and show me the Cyclops!"

The chimera vanishes in the mist and the Cyclops appears in the distance. He's still rubbing his blinded eye, so I guess he'll have to follow the sound of my voice.

"Ooooo Cyyyycloooops, remember me?" I say in the sweetest tone possible. He hears me and my tone doesn't miss its effect; he's livid. He stampedes over to me and I keep calling to steer him in the right direction.

"I'm going to squish you like a bug!" he growls. He lifts his foot and brings it down with the force of a wrecking ball, but unfortunately for him, I stood a few feet in the other direction and he squished the chimera instead. The latter dies instantly, but its diamondback tail escaped the Cyclops' foot. Subsequently, in a final spasm, the deadly snake bites down on the Cyclops' big toe.

"Aaah!" he screams. He stumbles all over the place and swings his fists at anything he can find. I hear several buildings getting hit, but I also hear a giant reptile getting punched. Nine reptilian heads loom out from the fog and spit acid at the Cyclops. He gurgles a final scream as he chokes on acid and drops dead.

"Holy crow!" I exclaim. _That was unexpected, yet awesome!_ However, the hydra now has its eighteen eyes locked on me. It opens its mouths, but I throw my other vial of gorgon's blood, the death kind, into one of them. The head swallows and not much later, the entire hydra collapses. _That was for Adonis!_

"Sssssilly girl," someone hisses behind me. The three drachnes slither to me, but before they can attack me, three huge Rottweiler heads bite the snake women in half. I look up to the Cerberus clone and see Kyle sitting on the middle head.

"Need a ride?" he calls sounding smug.

"How did you...?"

"Dogs are very affectionate animals. I just needed to rub its belly," he grins. My mist potion wears off and dead monsters lie scattered around us. _We managed to survive even this, o mighty gods; what's next?_


	10. Semi-Finals: Olympus

** JustALittleInfinity's chapter on Wattpad: 77273642-writers-games-%CE%BC%CE%AC%CF%87%CE%B7-%CF%84%CF%89%CE%BD-%CE%B1%CE%B4%CE%B5%CE%BB%CF%86%CF%8E%CE%BD-battle-of-the**

**A.N.: In previous chapters I wrote that all of the characters below died, but in the actual contest these are my remaining competitors. Thus they are still alive in this chapter (only to be killed again).**

_Expect the unexpected._ This sentence haunts my thoughts as Kyle and I travel through Manhattan. For the first time in a long while, we've had a peaceful day. The optimist within me says it's the gods sparing us after the monsters; the pessimist within me says it's the quiet before the storm.

_Expect the unexpected. _A vague and fairly useless advice, isn't it? Our lives are merely sequences of continuous unexpected events. When you walk out the door, who says you'll make it through the day alive? You might get hit by a car, or a meteor could impact and wipe you out, or you could get an aneurysm and die right where you're standing. There's no guarantee you get to _live happily ever after _or die peacefully in your sleep at the age of 103. Life and death are as unexpected as they come.

_Expect the unexpected, _especially in a quest where you were chosen against your will and people have been dropping like flies, often literally. Or when you fall in love. Or when a pack of giant monsters ambushes you and kills your boyfriend. I sure as hell didn't expect that! _Expect the unexpected_, because shit happens.

So, Kyle and I get off the New York subway and climb the stairs to the surface. The massive tower of the Empire State Building rises in the distance. We've made it. We are only a stone's throw away from winning this contest. Then again, _expect the unexpected_.

"The Empire State Building!" Kyle cheers. "Come on, Kim, I'll race you."

"Kyle, we're in the middle of crowded New York..."

"Aaaw, scared I'm going to beat you to it?" he smirks. _Challenge accepted!_

"No, I wouldn't want to crush your precious ego," I bolt off and he sprints after me. We're laughing, running like dogs chasing a ball. We whiz by the New Yorkers, but they don't notice us. They seem to be looking straight through us as if we're air. They're definitely not expecting the unexpected.

Kyle catches up to me and speeds ahead. His smug grin only broadens as the space between us grows. In the back of my mind, I'm already relinquishing the Victor's crown to him. I never wanted to win, just to survive, and I succeeded in that. _Let the boy have his fun_, I convince myself, _Men are more sensitive to competitions anyways._

I lose track of Kyle in the mob on the streets of Manhattan and slow down to a jog as I make my way to the Empire State Building. I feel happy letting him win, but my happiness is crushed when I reach the enormous skyscraper. The four other final tributes, who all so happen to be Camp Jupiter kids, are battling it out on the first floor. _Expect the unexpected_, buzzes in my mind.

Vayu, Kalila, Malissa, Ray and Kyle are attacking each other in turns. Kalila wields a bloody, tattered umbrella, whereas Malissa cuts through air, clothes, and flesh with a pair of throwing knives. Ray conjures up glowing spheres of light, while Kyle fights with his bare fists. Vayu, however, seems to be on the upper hand. He blasts everyone away with powerful gusts of wind...very powerful gusts...a bit too powerful...

By the great gods of Olympus, that isn't Vayu! Okay, it is, but not his personality. His demon half, Itzal, has taken over. Oh yeah, that devilish grin on his face, the unwavering confidence in his deer-like eyes, which have turned pale blue, and the supernatural wind power: that's good ole Itzal alright.

Addison, my 21-year-old sister who was Praetor at camp before I arrived, dealt with him together with Vayu's sister Divya. When Itzal possessed Vayu, Addison paralyzed him simply by blinking, her unique and, if I may add, awesome power, and trapped Itzal in an ice cage within Vayu's mind. She then taught him how to keep the frozen barrier up, but she knew it was only a matter of time before Itzal would break out. She told my older sisters about him and they told me. _Expect the unexpected._

Itzal/Vayu, whatever you want to call him, swings his sword over his head, causing a mini twister in the lobby of the Empire State Building. His assailants crash against the walls unconsciously, but the tourists don't feel or see anything. Apparently, the gods even let Itzal's wind attacks appear like nothing but a breeze to the mortals.

Then the wind demon catches sight of me. He lowers his sword, strides across the lobby and smirks at me.

"Kim Hellfire, I presume?" he cocks his head to the side, his blue eyes twinkling like shards of ice.

"The one and only," I raise my chin up, a failed attempt at sounding confident. He levels his head and his smirk vanishes entirely.

"The daughter of Hekate Vayu so desperately feared...Chicken. I've seen kittens more menacing than you."

"Kittens still have claws," I retort. Itzal finds it ever so amusing.

"I knew a daughter of Hekate once. Addison. Ring any bells? Probably does, you lot were always thick as thieves. Anyway, she locked me away in Vayu's mind for years. Do you have any idea how cold an ice cage is?"

"As cold as the frozen shell of your heart, I assume," I shrug. I don't know why, but I strangely feel like I could take this demon out with ease. Itzal giggles.

"Such confidence, so courageous, many wow," I have trouble holding my laugh as he quotes the Doge meme. _Damn you Itzal and your pop-cultural references._ "Maybe I did underestimate you. Still, I have unfinished business with your sister. Your luck!"

He gestures and suddenly I can't breathe; he is literally sucking the air out of my lungs. I grab for my throat, a pointless movement in the face of death. So this is how it's going to be? I'll suffocate right before the end? _Expect the unexpected._

I collapse on the floor like a sack of potatoes and gasp for air; air that Itzal keeps from my body. My vision blurs, but I can see Kyle storming to Vayu...Itzal...whoever. Unfortunately, this wind demon doesn't shy away from an opportunity kill. He whirls around, slashes with his wind-powered sword and nearly decapitates Kyle. Blood spatters over the cold marble floor. Some drops hit my face and it's as if something within me snaps, not unlike the way Kyle's head parted his body.

Because he distracted Itzal, I'm able to breathe in. I push up and drag my body to the nearest elevator. The doors close just as Itzal notices my departure. The elevator climbs a couple dozen of floors before I get off at a random level. I rummage my black backpack, take out my little black spell book and skim it. _Where is it? Where is the...Bingo! The spell of the elements._

The spell of the elements is the most powerful spell ever created and my sisters and I are only allowed to use it in the direst of times, but I believe this qualifies as a dire moment. The spell basically turns the spellcaster into the avatar. I read over the ritual and dash to the ladies room. While running I grab a sad flower pot from a desk and some random dude's lighter right out of his hands as he is about to light a smoke.

In the ladies room, I crack the pot on the floor, which spills dirt everywhere. Then I twist a faucet open and let the water run freely. Next I punch the button of a hand dryer and warm air blows from it. I take a roll of toilet paper and light it with the lighter before I kneel in the middle of this freaky mess, spread my arms and close my eyes.

"Terra, aqua, aer et ignis. Ex terra veni et vola, nam vim volumus. Ad nos adveni omni malo tuo," I recite the Latin spell, which caauses black ulcers to break from my back. They ooze with blood and mucus; a nasty balancing act of the spell, but I bite through the pain. Yet then the scattered dirt on the floor crawls together and forms a solid ball of earth. _Good, one element down, three more to go._

"Aqua, aer et ignis. Ex terra veni et vola, nam vim volumus. Ad nos adveni omni malo tuo," I repeat causing blood to seep from my nose and ears. The water running from the faucet lifts up in the air and forms a levitating water bubble.

"Aer et ignis. Ex terra veni et vola, nam vim volumus. Ad nos adveni omni malo tuo," the wind from the dryer blows so hard it rips strands of hair from my skull before it twirls into a mini tornado, "Ignis. Ex terra veni et vola, nam vim volumus. Ad nos adveni omni malo tuo."

Long bloody gashes appear in my arms and I finally let out a pained scream. The kindling toilet paper roll ignites fiercely, only to wither to a flickering flame. _I did it._ I've cast the spell of the elements and now I'm able to defeat Itzal. I wish I could spare Vayu, but if I do, Itzal lives, and if I don't, well, both Vayu and Itzal will be dead. So be it. Yet there's another wish growing within me, a desire for payback...for revenge.

"Water," I command as blood drips into my mouth, "go to Camp Half-Blood. Earth to Camp Jupiter. Wind to Olympus and Fire to the remaining tributes."

The four elemental representatives vanish into thin air and then I stumble out of the ladies room. Just when I reach the fire exit, the door swings open with a bang and there's Itzal again.

"Here's Johnny!" he calls deviously. He spots me and grins. "Good, I've found you. You wouldn't believe how many times I said that and you weren't there. So embarrassing!"

"Burn, you freak," I mumble. Suddenly, a raging fire flares and roasts half of Vayu's face off. He shrieks, but blows the fire out with a hand gesture. He eyes me from top to toe with rage and curiosity in his blue gaze.

"Well, well, looks like I'm not the only monster here."

"I'm a daughter of Hekate, and do you know what I also am?", he shakes his head, "Done with you! Earth, shatter his bones!"

Stone pillars shoot from the walls and floor, and strategically break his bones. He screams bloody murder as he collapses, but I don't care anymore.

"Air, leave his lungs!", he chokes and gasps like a fish on land, "Water, curdle his blood!"

He spasms and foams red at the mouth. He's dead now, but that's not enough for me. "Fire, incinerate him!"

I watch as the flames lick away at his corpse and stare at his impromptu cremation until he's nothing but a pile of ashes. Then I take the elevator to the top floor. On the way there, Carly Rae Jepsen's _Call Me Maybe_ plays in the background. At first, the song annoys me, but by the second chorus, I'm singing along to it and dancing like my bones are made of jello.

_Your stare was holding_

_Ripped jeans_

_Skin was showing_

_Hot night_

_Wind was blowing_

_Where you think you're going baby?_

I leave the elevator at the 600th floor, blood still dripping from my wounds. I cross the bridge to Olympus and then, at once, five tall and elegant figures appear: Jupiter, Neptune, Pluto, Apollo and, as I had hoped, my mother Hekate. They gracefully step toward me, but, apart from Mom, they all look like they sucked a lemon dry.

"Congratulations, Kim Hellfire. You won this quest and proved once and for all that Camp Jupiter is best," Jupiter rattles off irritably. "Now can you please undo that curse of yours? Your winds are tearing Olympus apart."

"Not to mention the floods washing over Camp Half-Blood," Neptune adds.

"And the earthquake hitting Camp Jupiter," Pluto grits his teeth. Mm, he's really angry. Oh right, I killed two of his kids. Oeps!

"I'm not going to do a damn thing about my spell," I say matter-of-factly. The look on their faces is priceless. Jupiter nearly wants to slap me silly, but Mom intervenes. She gently strokes my cheek.

"My beautiful, beautiful Kim, what happened to you?"

"This entire contest happened to me. You wanted me to kill, didn't you? Not be a pacifist? Did I do good, Mommy?" I whimper. Tears start to form in her eyes as she realizes what the gods have put me through.

"Hekate, how long will your daughter's spell last? Can you reverse it?" Pluto asks while Neptune keeps Jupiter at bay.

"It will last for 24 hours until she reverses it, or three of her sisters combined," she responds, but her green eyes stay on me. Empathy radiates from them.

"Then get your other girls to do it," Apollo urges. Although I killed a handful of his offspring, he stays remarkably calm. Shows you how much he cared.

"They won't," Mom and I reply simultaneously. We giggle, but Jupiter glares at us.

"The lobby of the Empire State Building is also still on fire, ladies, thanks to you," he nods to me, "taking out your competitors." So I killed them all? Oh well, _all but one will perish..._

"I will reverse the spell of the elements on one condition," I put forward.

"Do you have any idea who you are dealing with, girl? You are not in a position to make demands."

"Oh no? Well, if I don't have a strong position, then why don't you save everyone yourselves?" I smirk. The gods glance at one another before they nod.

Jupiter sighs. "Camp Jupiter won. What else could you possibly ask for?"

"Camp Jupiter didn't win, at least, not entirely. It was a shared victory," I start. _Expect the unexpected._

"Sweetheart, what do you mean?" Mom asks puzzled.

"I'm pregnant."


	11. Epilogue: Momma's Boy

**A.N.: I was voted off of JustALittleInfinity's writing contest on wattpad before the finale, so this is my proper ending to Kim Hellfire's story. Enjoy!**

**POV Kim**

As I caress my seven-month pregnant belly, I gently stir a steaming pot of chicken soup. With a clean spoon, I taste the hot liquid. _Needs more seasoning. _I add tarragon, white pepper and some rosemary, stir one last time and turn the heat down.

"Okay, soup's ready. Do you want some, Marcus?" I ask over my shoulder. At the small, round, wooden kitchen table behind me sits a five-year-old boy with half-long brown hair. He looks up from his drawing of a Pegasus and gazes at me with piercing green eyes.

"No, thanks, Mommy," he shakes his head. "I'm not hungry yet."

"That's okay, honey. You go back to drawing your Pegasus then," I ruffle his flowing brown locks before he looks down and focuses on his coloring again. When he's this concentrated, he always reminds me of my husband. It's uncanny how much he looks like him. That's not surprising, though: all my children look like their father, even Cole…

Thinking of Cole brings back memories from half a lifetime ago, when I was young and a pacifist, but had to sacrifice everything I believed in to survive. Fifteen years ago, I was chosen for a quest with 23 other demigods to prove whether Camp Half-Blood, or Camp Jupiter was best, and in the end, I was the only one to make it to Jupiter's throne on Olympus.

However, it was a bittersweet victory: although my boyfriend, Adonis, died during the quest, he lived long enough to conceive a child with me. My first pregnancy enraged the gods because a Greco-Roman hybrid baby meant no one had won the quest, as the Oracle had clearly stated: _All but one will perish._

Yet I kept a sword of Damocles dangling over the gods' heads. Right before the end, I had cast the spell of the elements to vanquish the wind demon Itzal, but out of revenge I also sent tidal waves to flood Camp Half-Blood, an earthquake to demolish Camp Jupiter, fire to scorch the Empire State Building and twisters to blast Olympus. If the gods wanted any of their offspring to survive the day, they had to listen to me. And they did.

My demand was simple: peace, peace between both camps to end the feud. The gods complied, but warned me that the camps themselves wouldn't accept this outcome. Still in control of the elements, I travelled back to Camp Half-Blood and forced a peace treaty out of Charissa and Toni.

How did I manage that, you ask? Well, I let a wave swallow the Hermes Cabin whole and threatened Charissa and Toni to repeat it for the following 24 hours. "That's plenty of cabins," I called to them while they were huddled on top of Half-Blood Hill with the other campers.

Charissa surrendered first, but Toni stared at me with a face as hard as concrete. _If looks could kill… _Before my threat, I had confessed my pregnancy to Camp Half-Blood too and Toni, secretly in love with me, couldn't accept that a guy who met me only two weeks earlier had wooed me so easily, whereas he didn't even have the guts to ask me out after our one-year friendship.

Luckily, a plea from Charissa made him agree to the peace anyway. Relieved, exhausted, and aching, I then collapsed into a puddle of my own blood since I was still bleeding from my back, arms, nose and ears. Once my sisters reversed the spell of the elements, the bleeding stopped as did the natural disasters attacking both camps and Olympus.

A sudden bang retreats me from my memories; it's our front door falling shut. I turn to the kitchen doorway to see two brown-haired girls rushing towards me.

"MOMMY!" they shriek excitedly. I hold on to the kitchen table for support as they cling to my legs and caress my daughters' hair while their big green eyes absorb my every move.

"I missed you, Mommy," my oldest daughter, Quinn, giggles. At age ten, Quinn – short for Tarquinnia – is a beautiful little lady with flowing brown hair that almost reaches past her shoulders.

"I missed you too, Mommy," my seven-year-old Lucy whispers. Her brown bangs touch the rim of her purple glasses.

"Me too," a man's warm voice chuckles. Leaning in the kitchen doorway, my husband of twelve years studies me top to toe with his piercing green eyes. He has crossed his muscular arms and a smirk plays on his handsome lips. As he steps forward to embrace me, our daughters release my legs.

My husband puts his large hands on my waist and pulls me into his hug. I run my right hand – a gorgeous sapphire wedding ring on its ring finger – through his short, dark brown hair before I reach up to kiss him. He then carefully cups my pregnant belly, squats and kisses it.

"How are my beautiful wife and my unborn son doing today?" he grins at me playfully.

"We're doing fine, thank you. Your beautiful wife is just a bit anxious about Cole…"

He sighs. "The boy's fifteen, babe. He's old, strong and smart enough to fetch for himself. No need for his mommy to worry. He does this every year, remember?"

"He's still my baby boy, Toni."

"What about my baby boys?" Antonius Katicus, my husband and former praetor, demands in a suddenly frosty voice.

**POV Toni**

I observe my wife's reaction and notice her stunning greyish green eyes go sad. No, not sad; she's disappointed. She's disappointed in me because I'll never forget that Cole is another man's son, even though I raised him as if he were my own and I love him to death.

She brushes my hands off her pregnant belly and sits down beside Marcus, our youngest, at the kitchen table. While our kids go about their business, Kim gives me the cold shoulder. I stand up, walk to the back of her chair, lean down and fold my arms across her chest.

"I'm sorry, babe," I whisper into her ear. "That was unfair."

"And uncalled for," she mutters. I feel her chest heave under my arms and I strangely get turned on. Seven months into her pregnancy, her breasts have doubled in size and I can't resist touching them when I'm around her. _Maybe that's why we're expecting our fourth kid…_

"I know, babe," I nuzzle my face into her gorgeous, long, brown hair, "It was the Mars part of me that said that."

She rubs my hands and sighs. "I know. You're an incredible husband and an even better father, even to Cole. Not all men would do that."

There was a time when I didn't either: right after Kim won the quest, raining fire and brimstone on both camps, and forced peace upon us. My broken heart and damaged pride blinded me from seeing the truth behind her motives. While she was recovering in the Hades Cabin of Camp Half-Blood under the watchful eyes of her three sisters, I went out of my way to avoid her influence.

That was easier said than done, though. All around me, both Greek and Roman campers were working together to rebuild Camp Half-Blood after Kim's massive flood. Even though the peace was established by force, it seemed to pay off, which only sent my anger into a downward spiral. After two days, however, I decided to confront my demons, or rather she-demon, and marched to the Hades Cabin.

I caught Kim and her sisters when they were about to leave for the ceremony of the shrouds, which commemorated the fallen demigods. Kim looked ravishing, which made it difficult for me to decide whether to scold or kiss her, and smiled in a friendly way, unaware of my smoldering anger.

I asked to speak to her in private and after her sisters left, I demanded to know why she slept with that Hephaestus boy. She immediately froze up and we got into a huge fight, but eventually she gave in and tore out the remainder of my heart from my chest.

"Because I couldn't refuse," she had croaked. "I loved him and I couldn't refuse him, not even if I had wanted too. We had just lost Ace, and Kyle had left to catch geese. Ace's loss had struck Adonis hard and he didn't want to be in the quest anymore. He didn't want to kill, fight or run anymore. He wanted to live, in every way imaginable.

So when he asked me, I couldn't refuse. I couldn't refuse his wish to live, to feel alive. To be honest, I think I wanted it too. To feel alive, that is. I just wanted to connect with someone and there he was, my Adonis. He didn't want to die a virgin and I couldn't refuse…I couldn't refuse, Toni. I couldn't."

Tears were streaming down her face, but her stunning greyish green eyes never broke contact with mine. Then she lifted the seam of her robes off the ground and brushed past me as if I were a whiff of air. I first spoke to her again nine months later.

I was helping a construction crew rebuild one of the temples on Temple Hill when Kim had one of her faithful lapdogs fetch me. Months earlier, Kim's earthquake had left Camp Jupiter and New Rome in ruins, so in an effort to avoid her, I offered to help with the restoration. Yet on that sunny afternoon, it was impossible to avoid Kim any longer: she was about to give birth to Adonis' son.

Reluctantly, I went to the infirmary, where I found Kim in a hospital bed sweating, groaning and in a great deal of pain. At the time, I actually had trouble not smirking at her inconvenience. Next to her, Kelly, her oldest sister, was holding her left hand while a midwife monitored her condition.

After Kim had breathed her way through an agonizing contraction, she smiled faintly and offered the seat by her right hand. She told me how happy she was I came and I replied with a nod. She babbled on about how she had missed me and that she felt relieved with her best friend back at her side, but I simply nodded.

As much as I wanted to leave, I felt scrutinized by Kim's henchmen of peace and decided not to be a dick. However, as her contractions followed closer together, Kim started to depend more and more on me. She squeezed my hand harder than Kelly's and talked only to me whenever the midwife or her sisters weren't checking up on her.

By the time she started pushing, I had unconsciously put my left arm around her shoulders and told her to squeeze my hand as hard as she could if she felt any pain. When she pushed and screamed as if she was being torn apart, which to be fair was sort of happening, I urged her to breathe and encouraged her by saying "You're doing great, Kim" or "Just a little more" or "You can do it. I believe in you".

Meanwhile, something incredible happened outside, because, all of a sudden, everything was cloaked in darkness. Astrid and Natalie, Kim's other sisters, ran inside and told us an eclipse was obscuring the sun. I took a minute to process that: I stared at the young woman giving birth beside me, swallowed, blinked a couple of times and peered outside to the moon shifting in front of the sun and blackening a bright day in spring.

In that moment, I realized that Adonis and Kim's son was special in more ways than just being a Greco-Roman hybrid. The gods had plans for this twice-blessed child, I was sure of it. When the powerful first cry of a newborn baby coincided with the exact second the eclipse ended, my realization was confirmed.

The midwife handed the young mother her wailing baby boy as Kim wept tears of joy and her sisters welcomed their nephew into the world. I gazed from the tiny, bloodied infant to his exhausted mother, who was crying happy tears, and I knew I would spend the rest of my life loving and protecting this family…my family.

**POV Kim**

On the docks of Camp Jupiter, I'm holding Toni's hand as we wait for the inevitable. We're standing next to a frigate from Camp Half-Blood while Quinn, Lucy and Marcus are cavorting about. The large wooden ship has unfurled its orange sails and seems ready to depart any moment now, but it won't until a certain passenger has boarded.

"Where is he? He didn't run away, did he?" I ask my husband nervously. "Or maybe he got injured during training?"

"Babe, calm down," Toni soothes me. "He was probably just held up somewhere. He'll be here soon. Besides, it's not like the ship's going anywhere without him."

"Yeah, of course. You're right," I sigh. Toni kisses me on my forehead, tells me to relax and gently squeezes my hand. I just can't help but imagine the worst case scenario when it comes to Cole, named after his deceased father's last name. Every year, Cole travels to Camp Half-Blood for five months to learn his Hephaestus heritage, and the seven other months of the year he stays with us in New Rome and trains at Camp Jupiter.

"Did I miss it?" I hear a familiar woman's voice call from behind us. Toni and I turn to face my older sister Kelly sprinting across the docks' creaking floorboards. When she reaches us, she leans against the hull of the frigate and pants.

"Well…did I?" she wheezes. Toni grins at me and I roll my eyes.

"No, he's not here yet. He's probably held up somewhere," I answer. Kelly stands up straight, eyes me and then puts both her hands on my pregnant belly.

"So, how's my little baby machine?" she coos as she rubs my baby bump.

"I'm fine. How are you?" I ask as Quinn, Lucy and Marcus charge my sister yelling "Aunt Kelly!" She squats and catches them in her arms.

"Heya kids," she chuckles before answering me, "I'm great! Kicking monster ass is a hoot."

"Language," I caution her. She rolls her eyes, releases my three children and rephrases:

"Magically battling fierce creatures has brought me great joy. Now happy?"

"Better," I nod. "Where are Astrid and Natalie?"

"Astrid has a _Mean Girls_ convention and Natalie is preoccupied with keeping her many boyfriends from finding out she has an entire harem worth of lovers."

Before any of my kids get the chance to ask what a harem is, Toni notices Cole walking up the docks. I peer towards the coast and see my 15-year-old son approaching us beside Charissa. He's still wearing his purple SPQR shirt and is carrying an enormous black backpack. Though, in comparison to his own height, the backpack seems quite appropriate.

Cole is nearly 5ft. 11in. tall (so not yet as tall as Adonis, but definitely getting there) and muscular like an ox, and has a black crescent that encompasses an anvil tattooed on his right arm. Even though I forbade him to get a tattoo, he got one anyway in Camp Half-Blood last year, which just about gave me a heart attack. He also has lightly tanned skin, greyish green eyes and short brown hair.

Most importantly though, he is unbelievably, indisputably and irresistibly handsome. I can't deny that he is the most attractive man I've ever seen and I dare say that even Venus would blush like a young virgin on her wedding night if she saw him. However complex Cole's genetics may be, they at least amalgamated my own and Adonis' good looks into the perfect face.

"COLE!" my three other children holler when they attempt to tackle their older half-brother. He manages to keep his balance though and reaches Kelly, Toni, and I with his siblings dragging behind him. Charissa, who didn't leave his side, greets us first. She shakes Kelly's hand, kisses Toni on the cheek and hugs me firmly.

"Good seeing you again, Kim," she smiles before she looks down at my pregnant belly, "Wow, pregnant again? Sheesh Toni, you can at least give her some time to recover before you knock her up again."

Embarrassed, Toni blushes, but Charissa, Kelly, and I giggle. By the time I notice Cole again, he has put Marcus in his shoulders and is holding Quinn's and Lucy's hands. Toni lifts Marcus off of Cole's shoulders before Kelly says her goodbye and pinches her nephew's cheeks.

"Oh, I'm going to miss that pretty little face of yours," she coos twisting and pulling Cole's face every which way. He eyes me like a scared puppy.

"Mom, make her stop," he mumbles, but his aunt isn't done yet, because she presses his face hard against her bosom, practically suffocating him with her breasts, "Aunt Kelly, please, let go out me. I can't breathe."

Eventually, Kelly relinquishes him and gives him a final peck on the cheek, further embarrassing him. Then it's his siblings' turn: they hug him for almost a minute and whisper things in his ear that they obviously don't want me or Toni to hear. My husband is next to say goodbye:

"I'm going to make this short, kiddo. Listen to Charissa, follow the rules of Camp Half-Blood, try not to start too many fights, unless you know you can win them," a glare from me quickly nullifies that advice, "well, at least not outside of training. Don't get any new tattoos either, or piercings, you hear?"

_Don't give him any ideas, honey._ The gods only know which shenanigans he plans to surprise me with when he returns. However, the following advice Toni gives him completely knocks my socks off.

"Lastly, try not to drive too many Greek girls crazy, hé hotshot!" he ruffles Cole's short hair innocently, but the grin the two men exchange is far from innocent. Why is my husband cautioning my son about girls? He's only fifteen. They don't like girls yet at that age, right?

_Don't be an idiot, Kim_, I reprimand myself. Of course, they do. Remember how you were at fifteen: swooning over every boy that smiled at you? _But that grin!_ Does my husband know stuff about my son I don't? I should have seen this! When exactly did my baby become a womanizer?

I was so occupied with my motherly panic attack that I completely forgot that Toni had left Cole and I alone to say goodbye. I blink and see the young man for whom I went through so much trouble to protect. His mesmerizing greyish green eyes that he inherited from me seem so peaceful now. They should stay that way. I would never forgive myself if I let his gentle nature be crushed by violence in the same way I sacrificed my pacifism.

"You know I love you, don't you?" I start weakly.

"Of course I do, Mom. I love you too," he smiles innocently. My maternal heart breaks and tears start to form in my eyes. I pull him closer to me and hug him. The fact that he's significantly taller and broader than me makes for an incredibly awkward moment on Cole's part.

"It's such a shame you'll miss the birth of the baby," I sniff when I let go of him.

"Mom, I've witnessed your pregnancies three times before. I think I know the drill by now," he scoffs. I hug him one last time before leaving him in Charissa's care. They board the frigate, which sets off for open sea as my family and I wave goodbye.

Fifteen years ago, I thought my love for Adonis was the real deal, but later on I realized it was just puppy-love when I found a more lasting and profounder love with Toni, my husband and best friend. However, the love a mother feels for her children runs even deeper than that of boyfriend and girlfriend, or husband and wife. So, although my love for Adonis was merely a whim, my love for Cole, our son, will always burn within me until the day I die because that's what mothers do.


End file.
